A New Soul Reaper
by animaniacj
Summary: I was your average student, sports, friends, and video games. Then Ichigo had to go and stab me after I already died. An OC adventure after the Winter War. RxR what you think.
1. A New Power

**A New Tale of Power:**

I have one thing to say about all of this, I don't think I will ever get used to standing air. Jumping through it, fine, did that all the time in gymnastics. Or can I say do? But I'm getting ahead of myself. My name is Sanju Roku, and I'm half dead. And no thanks can be said to Ichigo Kurosaki for it.

My life had been fine. Sure, I was an obvious lover of all things manga and anime, but this didn't keep me from gymnastics. I even had a close group of friends who shared both my passion for the gym and manga. Then they died, and so did I, but only almost. We were on our way home from after school practice, when I suddenly heard a loud "THUMP!" from behind us. I whipped around immediately, but saw nothing but a swirling dust cloud.

"What's wrong dude, think you have a stalker?" and they all snickered. "Didn't you just hear that, like something huge just landed behind us?"

"Oh come off it, you're imagining things now."

"Yeah, maybe you guys are right." And we all had a laugh, until two of them had to stop due to the giant holes in their abdomens. "What the…" was the last thing both of them said, before they slumped over, dead. The three of us were scared. "What just happened, where did their entire middle just go!" said my friend to my left, just before his head fell off. The two of us ran. We ran like we were the best on the track team, but we were only good at short distances. That's when I heard from behind us "_so one of you two have the delicious one then, hmm?"_

I didn't know who or what had just said that, but we both kept running, until both of our legs were ripped out from under us. My friend tried to ignore the pain and keep crawling foreword while I succumbed to it. All I could do was turn over to at least see who was going to kill me.

Turns out not who, but what. It was at least twice what my height used to be, rust red, with a white mask that looked like a praying mantis. Its limbs were almost exactly like one to, it was standing on two needle like legs that pierced the sidewalk, while each of its five 'fingers' were actually like barbed spears. I had one thought, 'Get out of there, no matter the cost.'

So I got up and ran again. I ran right past my friend who was still crawling without his legs, which reminded me, weren't my legs gone to? I looked down, but sure enough, there they were, along with a chain coming out of my chest.

"_So it's you then hm?"_ I heard the weird voice again, this time realizing it was coming from that strange thing. As looked back at him, I realized something I didn't before, he had a huge gap _in the middle of his chest_. "Well crap, if this thing on me is related in any way to that hole, then I would rather die!"

I heard my friends finally scream as he died as well and I heard the being behind me again. _"Didn't you realize it, hm? You already are."_ I whirled around and actually saw it standing right in front of me. "What do you mean I'm dead? I'm still running and breathing, away from you no less."

"_Oh-ho? Well, let's se how you feel after this."_ And he brought his hand scraping across the chain that had fallen on the ground from my chest. I gasped in pain and at the sudden feeling of not being able to breathe. "What… What did you just do!"

"_I just made sure you're truly dead."_ It said as it stepped aside, and there I saw my body, without any legs, lying there. _"Now, I'm done playing, goodbye, strong soul."_ With that, it opened its jaw, and just beyond that I saw a pair of teeth, and beyond that, nothing. I raised my arms to stop what would happen next and closed my eyes. But nothing happened to me; in fact I heard the thing scream. I opened my eyes and saw the last of the thing disappearing, and in front of me I saw Ichigo and a black haired woman. But they were both in some sort of weird black garb. Ichigo then knelt next to his HUGE sword, where the hell could he have gotten that?

"Rukia, this is just getting harder and harder to do, maybe you should take the next one on your own."

"No, you're doing this until you can't do anymore period."

Man was this woman bossy. Wait, Rukia? Where had I heard that name before? Oh right, she was in Ichigo's class since she had transferred in the first year. Wait, first year, but didn't she come in… awe this was all confusing, there were to many conflicting memories to get it straight. Unluckily for me I didn't have time to focus on that because I felt an agonizing pain from the plate on my chest, and I screamed.

This made both of them whip around and see me. Well great, at least they paid attention now

"Oh man, he didn't eat all of them, at least we can save one." Ichigo said

"Look again Ichigo, his Spirit Chain is severed, he is truly dead."

"But wait, if he's dead, shouldn't his chain just hang there until we come then? It shouldn't be causing him pain."

"That's only when spirits don't have the potential to become Hollows. Honestly, don't you pay attention to my drawing?"

"No, because they suck."

"HEY! Dead guy in pain here, mind explaining that to me real quick here?" I snapped

"Oh, you can actually talk in your situation, I'm impressed." Rukia said, "Well, I don't have my pad here, so here's what's happening, you remember the thing that just killed you?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Well, you are currently becoming one of them."

"WHAT!"

"Now now, hear me out, since you are becoming one, it means your soul is strong enough to do it, this also means we can take that power."

"How?"

"By doing this." Ichigo said as he stepped in front of me, and stabbed me right in the heart.


	2. Revalation

**A New Revalation:**

"AHH! What the hell was that for?" I screamed as Ichigo pulled his sword out of my chest.

"That was for saving your soul, now be a little bit grateful."

"GRATEFUL! You want me to be _grateful_!" I jumped up and got in his face. "I just DIED! My body has lost its legs, I've lost my closest friends, and you come in and stab me. Oh yeah, I'm _completely_ grateful."

"Well, that's great to hear." Ichigo said, as though he hadn't heard a single word I had just said. "As for your legs, I'm sure we can get those reattached. For your friends, I'm sorry, but that's just how the world works. By the way, you make those robes work great, and how's your pain?"

"My pain! Oh I'll tell you I feel…" I patted my chest, and instead of feeling metal, I felt soft robes instead, "I feel fine." I said in amazement.

"Ichigo! What did you just do?" Rukia burst out; I had even forgotten she was there.

"What? All I did was give a fellow soul some power that was about to go to waste anyways."

"Exactly that! Power sharing was forbidden by the Soul Society, or did you entirely forget why I was arrested in the first place?"

"Yes, I know, but like I said, it would only be going to waste otherwise. And on the other hand, Soul Society jurisdiction is a bit loose when it comes to me doesn't it?"

"I guess you're right." Rukia mumbled, but this perked my own curiosity.

"What do you mean wasting power? And what is this Soul Society you two keep talking about? You know what? Just start at the point where Ichigo becomes important, and go from there."

"Well, you see, about a year ago, my family was attacked by a hollow looking for me…" Ichigo started.

…

"…And then when I used my final move, it started to render all of my powers void." Ichigo wrapped up.

It had been a pretty extensive explanation. So long in fact, I had called 110 and had had the ambulances come and pick up the bodies. They were able to observe my body was barely making it, and put me on emergency care. It was one weird out of body experience to say the least.

Ichigo, Rukia, and myself were now on top of the hospitals roof, as we were supposed to meet some of the other people Ichigo had told me about through his story. For some reason, he kept any names I would know out of the story, and I figured out why as soon as they showed up. Chad, Orihime, and Uryu all came onto the roof from the door and I immediately started blubbering. Chad I could understand doing what he had been described doing, but the princess of the school and a nerd? But, to be fair, I think they were just as surprised to see me.

"If you just called us here to introduce us to a new Soul Reaper, then I'm going to leave." Uryu said as he turned to leave. I couldn't believe it; he didn't even recognize me as from the same school! "OI, you think that's the way to meet new people!"

"Soul Reaper's are _not_ people." He said without even turning around.

"Well, great, I guess your classmates aren't people either then!"

This made him pause and turn around. I saw him glance at Orihime and he sighed, "I guess I'll listen for a little bit." He mumbled and came back.

"Wow, that was a bit harsh." Ichigo whispered to me.

"Well, it got him to stay."

"True." With that, he started addressing everybody. "Well guys, as we all know, I am not going to last that much longer, don't even debate it Orihime." He said holding hand to stop whatever argument Orihime was about to make. "So, to try to keep a competent Soul Reaper around here, I changed one of our mostly dead classmates into one."

"Interesting, except for the fact that he isn't one." Uryu said. Wow, wasn't even bothered about the mostly dead thing, he must have a heart of stone. "If he were a real Soul Reaper, he would have a Zanpakto, no?"

"Yeah, I was kinda wondering the same thing. From the story that you told me, all Soul Reapers have a sword, so where's mine?" I asked.

"What, you don't have one? I assumed you did." Ichigo looked me up and down like he finally started to look at me properly. "I got mine right away when Rukia stabbed me, I thought it would work the same way."

"Well, it didn't. Rukia, you have any ideas on this entire missing sword business?"

"Well, usually when you don't get your Zanpakto, it's because it isn't meant to be. But in this case, you were pumped with Ichigo's energy, which considering his amount of control, should have flooded with plenty of power to attract Zanpakto."

Nothing helpful there then. "Um, so what happened to him that constituted you giving him power Ichigo?" Orihime spoke up. Right, we kinda hadn't explained anything yet. And since it was my story to tell, I got to it. I told them all of how my friends and myself were heading home when I felt the Hollow landing. I skimmed over the details of how we all died, and got to the point of how I was starting the process of transforming when Ichigo stepped in. I concluded with how my body was currently in surgery to reattach my legs. If the doctors could do that much, Rukia assured me that she could tamper with my body enough to make sure I could walk afterwards. But my body was defiantly going to be in a coma for a long time to come, but as long as it was alive, even barely, I could stay home.

Thankfully, they were all silent and let me explain my role until I was done, and it was surprisingly Chad who broke the silence first. "So, you're going to be taking over Ichigo's role after all of his powers are gone?"

"Apparently, that is, if I can get Zanpak-whatever." I confirmed.

"Well, until then, we can train you in other things while you try to find it." Rukia stepped in, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Things like?" I tensed up, because I could feel her hand squeezing a bit harder than necessary for a reaffirming pat.

"Things like concentration!" She yelled as she grabbed onto my robes and tossed me right over her, and right over the ledge of the roof.

"That's dangerous!" I yelled as I landed, in a three-point landing. Thank you for that toning from gymnastics.

"Oh, don't worry about that, you're already dead!" She yelled to me with one of the creepiest smiles I had ever seen. A smile of death on my part, from what I could interpret. "And besides, you're quite the fast learner, you've already learned how to channel you're energy to stand on the air." She said as she jumped towards me. Man, if I could jump like that, nationals would be nothing. Wait, did she say standing on air?

I looked down to realize I hadn't landed on the adjourning building, but instead the air between the two, and a good six feet above both. Now, I had never been all that afraid of heights, but this scared the hell out of me. I started falling just then, and would have probably died again if Rukia hadn't grabbed the nape of my robes.

"You can go home for tonight Ichigo!" She called back "I'll be training the rookie, and you better help out! This is your mess to deal with too!"

I didn't even hear if Ichigo responded, because by the time I saw him open his mouth, we were already three blocks away. Jesus, this woman could jump, and choke. I had to nearly tug her sleeve off before she noticed I was turning blue. We landed on top of an apartment complex and she set me down so I could finally breathe.

"God, you sure are forceful. How has Ichigo handled you until now?"

"He hasn't 'handled' me. He just knows what's best for getting done fast."

"From what I know of him, I call bull on that. He's the kind of guy that does whatever he wants, regardless of what others say."

"Well then, you are quite the observant one then. Even I admit he is a bit hard headed."

"_Hardheaded?_ He stabbed me because he saw an opportunity to do what he thought was right and took it. He didn't even care that the Soul Society would come in and execute him for it. He isn't just stubborn, he's blind to consequences."

"As true as that may be, he has done the Soul Society a great deal. And if you say anything to me, or probably anybody else from the Soul Society, that belittles him in any way, you just might lose your way back to your body." She told me. It was then I could see the hurt in her eyes. She really did care that she soon would never be able to talk to Ichigo again until he died. And even then, from what I could tell, he might not even remember her. I decided not to take it any further, because that just reminded me of my friends and family.

My friends _were_ dead, and nobody would ever see them again. And for a long time to come, my family would be worried sick over me. So I decided to get this training started.

"So, can you teach me how you jump like that Rukia?"


	3. Meetings

**A New Meeting of Outsiders:**

Rukia only smiled down at me. This one was a lot gentler than the one before. "Maybe after we get you to learn a bit more about yourself. And to do that, we need to go to Urahara's. As for now, we're close enough to walk the rest of the way."

"Well, if you're not going to teach me how to do things, how about telling me what I'm going to be learning instead."

"I guess that would be acceptable." She said as she jumped down. I hesitated for a second to follow her, but then I sucked it up and jumped down. I shouldn't have worried all that much, the decent felt a lot slower than anything I had done before. Then again, I was a spirit and not an actual flesh and blood being, so I guess being lighter would come with it.

She explained that there were four basic areas in which I would be learning: Hand-to-hand combat, sword fighting, faster movements, and Kido. I guessed the sword fighting and needing some sort of movement enhancement, the hand-to-hand shocked me for a second, but then again, what if I lost my metaphorical sword? The Kido threw me off; I was going to learn how to manipulate energy! I wanted to ask more, but she silenced before I could say anything and stood in front of me. "Welcome to Urahara's Shop." She said in as little enthusiasm I think was possible while it was still there. And I could understand.

For being my new training ground, to put it simply, it looked like it could fall over from a strong gust of wind. I guess that might be why it was in such an alleyway. Rukia walked up to the front and knocked. "GO AWAY! WE'RE CLOSED!" I heard a shrill boy's voice come from inside, and Rukia just sighed. "Jinta, it's me." Was all she called back. I soon heard feet scrambling towards the door and soon it was flung wide open. "Hey Rukia, what took so long? That should have been an easy kill. And who's the new guy?"

The last part was directed at me and I could finally see him, he was a short kid with blindingly red hair in a red tang top and blue shorts, with a… was that a club?

"He's kind of the reason why I'm back here Jinta, so can you go get Urahara for us please?"

"Sorry Rukia, but he isn't in right now."

"Jinta, it's not nice to lie to customers." I heard slightly. It was very faint, but I'm sure it was a girl. It was hard to tell, and I was not even four feet from the door behind Rukia.

"Ah, shut up Ururu. He doesn't need to see them now." Jinta said bopping something behind him, and I heard a whimper.

"Hey," I said stepping around Rukia and bonking Jinta on the head in kind, "it's not nice to hit girls, especially the reclusive ones."

"Oh yeah? And what are you going to do if I said I do it all the time?"

This kid just got on my nerves; so much so I didn't even realized I had hit him in the face. Now I usually don't hit kids, but for some reason, I felt like he could use it. I gained my senses in time to realize that he was indeed carrying quite a heavy looking club, and was indeed coming straight for my head.

Thank you conditioning, if it weren't for that, I might have just lost my head off my shoulders. I bent backwards enough for it to miss by a hairs breadth. But this caused me to fall backwards as well, and I may not be an experts in fights, but having your back on the ground does not lead to anything good. So I just took that momentum and threw myself into a back flip. By the time I stood up to see Jinta again, however, a very tall and well-ripped man was holding the club in one hand and Jinta by the head in the other. "You know Mr. Urahara doesn't like it when you hurt his customers, Jinta."

"Y-Yes, Mr. Tessai. I-I understand." Jinta stuttered back.

"Good. Now then Miss Rukia, I'll take you and your friend here Mr. Urahara."

"Thank you Tessai." Rukia let out her breath she had been holding.

They all walked in deeper into the store, and I guess I should follow after them. As I got to the back of the dusty store, I realized that this was also a home. As we all stepped into what I guess was their living room, I saw a little girl with black twin-tail hair run off to the side as Tessai went further back and Jinta and Rukia sat at the low table. I sat opposite of Jinta and looked at the wall, not wanting any kind of unsupervised action where I actually might hurt myself, because for the life of me, I could just feel that I could not take on Jinta.

"Well, if it isn't Rukia. What may I give such the pleasure of your visit?" A man in a green and white-stripped hat that drooped over his eyes said as he walked in. He also had on a pair of old fashioned sandals and a cane, though he didn't seem like he needed it.

"Well Urahara, we have a new 'recruit', and he doesn't seem to have his Zanpakto with him, or anywhere for that matter."

"Are you sure he didn't lose it when he came over?" Urahara said as he sat down and whipped out a fan from his sleeve.

"No, he didn't. I was there when he was made."

"Well, isn't that just interesting. Then again, we only ever did have Ichigo get his Zanpakto without his inner journey beforehand."

"What, like meditating?" I asked.

"Well, yes. Exactly like meditating in fact. But instead of looking outward and slightly inward, you're looking deep inside yourself. But I must admit, having as much power such as yours and no Zanpakto to balance it out with can be a bit dangerous."

Danger for a dead guy doesn't really inspire hope. "Well, let's get on with it then. I'm already on my second chance, and I don't expect a third."

"Very proactive, aren't we? Very well then." And with that, he picked up his cane, whipped it around a little, and jabbed right through my head.


	4. Meeting a Zanpakto

**A New Zanpakto Spirit:**

"OW! What is with people and stabbing me today!" I yelled as I sat up. But there was no one there to yell at. I was in the middle of a glade of tall grass, with only a single, humongous tree with bright red leaves to be seen. I could hear a stream, multiple in fact, but I couldn't see any of them. "Where am I?" I asked to no one in particular.

"_You tell me."_ I heard come from all around me. "Well, as far as I can tell, I'm in a glade with a huge, strange tree."

"_Oh come on, you can be more descriptive than that."_ The voice prompted me.

"Well, the glade goes as far as I can see, hiding in it multiple waterways, probably feeding directly to the tree."

"_Why don't you go check for yourself?"_

I didn't see why not, so I walked over to the tree to see if my suspicions were correct. Turns out they were, though not quite what I was expecting. Instead of water flowing into the tree, the channels were actually flowing out of the trees roots. "Well that just doesn't make any sense."

"_It does to you, deep down."_

"Oh yeah? And how would you know? In fact, who are you?"

"_I am who you came here seeking."_

"Really, you're a sword? Last time I checked, swords don't talk."

"_And you would be right. _Swords _don't talk, but Zanpakto do."_

"Fine, so I'm supposed to be talking to a Zanpakto. Great, so why don't you just come on out so we can talk face to blade."

"_I can't do that Sanju. You need to actually want to meet me."_

"But I am wanting to meet you! Why else do you think I'm here?"

"_Because others told you to seek me. If you really want to meet me face to face, you'll first have to find why you personally want me."_

And with that, I felt its presences disappear from around me. Well, here was as good as any to sit and meditate, like Urahara told me I would be doing before he hit me. I focused on what had just happened to me in the last six hours.

My friends died, I died. I was about to cease existing all together, then Ichigo and Rukia saved me. I was told about all about the spiritual world, and learned I wasn't alone in the endeavor of surviving this messed up world. But that was it, so why did I feel like I needed this Zanpakto? Then again, I had never really worked toward anything before.

My life had practically been handed to me since I had been born. I was third born in my family, and the last. My older brother and sister were already out of college and onto being a DJ and vocal performer respectively. I had gone to school and joined gymnastics, but nothing that and ever been out of the ordinary, and I had never thought of doing anything different. So why was I so different? Then I realized, I had done absolutely _nothing_ out of the ordinary, in fact, nothing my siblings hadn't already done before me.

I had never done anything productive, nothing to make a difference for myself or anyone else. Even gymnastics had been because my friends had told me to join. Maybe, the reason why I wanted to do this, to be a Soul Reaper, was to help in a way no one I knew had done before. Sure, I was only doing this now because Rukia and Ichigo had told me to, but I could have easily said no, but I went with them anyways. If I could do something to actually help people for once, maybe I could actually do something that matters.

"_So,"_ The voice came back _"have you found your reason for why I should lend you my power?"_ it asked.

"I believe I have." I said without moving, "I need your power to help find myself, for I realize I haven't lived half the life I could have."

"_A very good answer."_ I heard come from directly in front of me instead of all around me. I opened my eyes and was very startled by what I saw. It was a dragon of some sort, like a bipedal chimera of dragons. It had the flowing head of a Chinese dragon, the hands of a salamander, the legs of a western dragon, and the clawed wings of a Wyvern. How did I even know those four parts?

The weirder part was how each part of its body was formed. Its head was flowing because it was actually flowing water. Which was weird because its arms looked dried and cracked earth that hadn't seen water in ages. I was confused to even see its wings, seeing as they seemed to be made out of amassed, swirling air, yet they had a light green hue to them. As for its legs, they looked very muscular with the characteristic backwards knees of creatures on four legs. They ended in flat enough feet to support him, but they had three toes, each ending in claws, and red as a blazing fire.

Each part seemed to be made out of something completely different, yet they all came together to form a solid abdomen. In all, it made for a very intimidating scene to see standing on the root of the tree. To say the least, I stumbled back a good four feet before I calmed down.

"S-So you're the voice you had been talking to me th-this entire time?" I said, trying to stutter as little as possible.

"_I am."_ Was all it gave me.

"And your name would be?" I inquired, seeing as it already knew my name.

_That is something you will still have to look deeper into yourself to find. Because deep down, you know who I am, for I have always been with you."_

Great, even more meditating. So I settled down and refocused back into myself, this time trying to find this dragon's name. I sat there for what seemed to be hours, but I couldn't figure it out. I thought of so many names for this chimera of a dragon, but nothing seemed right for him. I finally decided that it had to be male from the way it was talking to me. Yet nothing was an appropriate name for such a beast as him. I had opened my eyes multiple times to look him over again, and he was always in the same place, right on that root.

Then I thought of something, what if looking at him wasn't what I needed to do but ascertain his entire being into his name, not just his imposing parts. "Shiyouso." I muttered under my breath.

"_Yes Sanju?"_ I heard him say from the root. "Wait, that's your actual name?"

"_Yes it is, and now that you have found all of me, we can start our journey together. But for now, you should probably wake up."_

"I should? I could swear I have only been here for an hour, two tops."

"_That's the thing, you've been asleep and here for about three days now. In fact, I can feel Urahara and Rukia worrying."_

"Three days!" I exclaimed as I sat bolt upright. This startled the little girl with the twin tails as she was walking in with a bowl of water with a rag in it. It was then that I noticed that there was another rag in my lap. "What was this for?" I asked as politely as I could so I wouldn't startle her any more than I already had.

"Um, as you apparently know, you've been asleep for three days, and you were starting to develop a fever, so I was trying to keep you as cool as possible."

I smiled as warmly as I could. "Well, thank you. Ururu was it?"

"Uh, yeah." She mumbled. "I guess I should tell Mr. Urahara that you're awake now."

"I think that would be best." I said. At that she turned around and practically ran away. I guess I didn't give the impression of nice that I thought I did. Then I felt a weight on my lap that wasn't the rag. I don't know how I missed a sword being on my lap, but I guess I did.

Now, I had never seen a sword besides Ichigo's and Rukia's, but I would have to say it looked like a normal length of aproxamatly 4 ½ feet long in an emerald green sheath. The guard to it was also petty interesting; it was a near perfect square with two triangular points coming out of the sides. I drew it out to look at the blade, and it rang so pleasantly. "So, you're Shiyouso, huh?" I asked the blade, and surprisingly, I got what felt like a purr come from it. I smiled as I sheathed it.

Just then, Urahara came into the room. "So I see that you're up and have your Zanpakto. That's good to see. Now all we need to do is to get your training started, come with me." With that he turned around and started walking. I got up and went after him


	5. Training Regimen

**A New Training Regimen:**

"All right, I believe this question is in order here. HOW IN THE HELL IS THIS DOWN HERE!" I yelled as I got to the bottom of the ladder. Seriously, I even got an echo; we were standing at the edge of a giant rocky dessert. The ceiling was even lit like it was three in the afternoon. And I still couldn't see the end of the room.

"This is where we are going to hone your skills." Urahara said, like he didn't even hear me. "Now, draw your Zanpakto and we shall begin."

I might as well do as he says. Rukia trusts him enough to let him look over my unconscious body, and he probably wouldn't answer to anything that would hamper what he was trying to accomplish. So I drew out Shiyouso from his sheath, and decided to slide the sheath into the belt of my robes next to my left hip. And as soon as I had the sheath in my belt, Urahara attacked me with his cane as though it were a real sword.

I hastily jumped back and held my sword in the kendo pose that I had seen the club use at the school tournament. "So, you have some nice reflexes and at least a basic stance, that's a nice start, but I'm sure we can do better." He said as he launched himself at me again. We kept at this little game for a good hour or so, him attacking me with his cane while I either dodged or tried to actually parry him. By the end of it, I was hurting and heaving while he was twirling his cane and whistling. What was wrong with this man?

Thankfully Rukia showed up before he could put me through his next 'lesson'. "Urahara, what are you doing with the poor thing?" she asked as she came up. "You should at least teach him how to hold a sword and breathe properly."

"But Rukia dear, that's exactly what I've been doing." He said innocently.

"Bull shit." Rukia and I said simultaneously. "Anyways," Rukia continued, " I shall take over from here to teach Sanju how to use his energy conservatively." And with that, she took me into meditation. She taught me how to clear my thoughts and how to make sure that my being was in sync with itself. Then she taught me how to use basic Kido. It was fun, but hard. It took me a while to use even Hado #1, but it was a lot less physically taxing then what Urahara had had me doing.

I was feeling pretty good about having the basics down when Ichigo came around. "So, I'm just asking here, if Ichigo can barely use his power's as he is now, how exactly is he going to train me?" I asked Urahara and Rukia before he came into hearing range, which wasn't too difficult to do.

Urahara just chuckled. "He might be losing his powers day by day, but he doesn't need them to train you. You'll see what I mean in a minute." And with that, he started to walk over to Ichigo to welcome him to my 'party'.

"All right Sanju, I'm now going to teach you what to do when you lose your Zanpakto." Ichigo said, walking up to me. And before I knew it, I was on my back with Shiyouso in his hand.

"How the hell did you do that?" I asked as I started to get on my hands and knees to stand.

"Like this." He said as my face proceeded to be flat in the dirt.

"Will you stop that!" I yelled as I lifted my head off the ground.

"No." was all he answered with as I found myself flying through the air. I decided I had had enough of being tossed like a rag doll, so I focused my energy like Rukia had just taught me and dashed straight at Ichigo. He easily sidestepped me, but that's what I wanted. As I sailed right past him, I grabbed Shiyouso back. I whipped around to face him, but he was gone.

"Now, now, that just won't do. We're currently training you how to fight _without_ your Zanpakto." Ichigo said from behind me. When the hell did he get there?

I saw him making a grab for Shiyouso, so I decided to give it to him. Instead of pulling it away, I instead jabbed him with the sheathed blade. But stopped it before it hit him with his other hand and yanked it away.

"Fine, if I'm going to learn how to fight without Shiyouso, can you at least tell me how you keep doing things without me noticing?"

"What? You mean like this?" He said, after he already had my arms twisted behind me.

"Yes, like that! Now get off me you oaf!"

"Fine, no need to get angry over things already done." He shrugged, standing in front of me. My arms were now only behind me because I kept them there. This man was infuriating; he came in trying to teach me like I already knew everything!

"It's not all that hard to do. In fact, you already did it once to take back your Zanpakto." He explained, turning towards me. He was actually serious.

"But I only did that in anger of what you were doing." I said, with a bit cooler head.

"Right, which is why it was sloppy, but well executed. You had me thinking you were going for my head, but actually went for your sword, very clever, but now to teach you of the proper flash step. What you need to do is focus your energy into your movements. When you can do this, you can easily get the drop on slower and weaker enemies. Unfortunately, no one that I know of can truly follow a person in mid flash step with the naked eye, so we will also need to train your prediction speed for battle."

"And how exactly are we going to do that? It all seems pretty complicated to do in practice."

"Which is exactly why we're going to train the same way I did in the beginning. We're going to fight until it get's beaten into you enough for you to learn."

Fun. I'm not going to enjoy this one bit.

…

I was right; I didn't enjoy it, I thrived in it! Once I figured out how to do a proper flash step and Ichigo's premade attack pattern, I was actually able to get some blows in. I knew this wasn't like a real battle, but it was way better than the other practices. Urahara just beat on me, Rukia talked my ears off, but Ichigo actually gave me a chance to fight back.

The next week went in about the same fashion. Urahara would beat on me while I tried to figure out swordplay to defend myself, Rukia would take me step by agonizing step through Kido, and Ichigo and I would have a fistfight until I was completely worn out. On the eighth day, however, things went a bit differently. First off, I could see Ichigo and Rukia were standing next to Urahara as I got to the bottom of the ladder. Usually they arrived later in the practices.

Second, instead of Urahara out right attacking me when I drew my sword, he instead smiled. This worried me; Urahara smiling was never a good sign, for anyone. "Well, today, we see how far our training has brought you."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked warily, still holding my sword in the ready position.

"Today, we're having a three-on one fight to see if you can hold your own against us."

"Are you crazy?" I asked as I dropped my arms to my side, "I can barely hold you and Ichigo off in a one-on-one match. I haven't even fought Rukia, but I can tell right now that she can kick my ass. What in the world makes you think that a three-on-one would be a good idea?"

"Well, it's to simulate a stronger opponent that you can't get the feel of." Rukia explained, "It will also help you utilize what you currently know."

I sighed in frustration. "Fine, but can we at least start a bit further into the grounds?"

"Nope!" the three said simultaneously, as they all jumped me. Urahara from the top with his cane, Rukia at my right with her sword drawn for an uppercut, and Ichigo to my left with a right roundhouse. So I did the only thing I could do in that situation unprepared, I ducked down to my left under Ichigo. Urahara and Rukia's attacks collided, while Ichigo's kick broke the connection. While under him, I took a slash at Ichigo's mid-section, but he hopped back with his left leg. From there it was all a blur.

All I can say was I gave these people a good run for their money. I got Rukia to use Sode no Shirayuki, Urahara to draw a Zanpakto from his cane, and even got Ichigo to switch to his Soul Reaper form. But even with a week's worth of training from these three, they all easily overpowered me. I was getting beaten down with no mercy, it was infuriating, and I just wanted it all to stop. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore and had to scream.

"_**Split, Shiyouso!"**_

My guard's lower portion lowered by a good four inches and the entire blade turned rust brown, and I slammed the blade into the ground. Three slabs of rock shot up in front of each of my assailant, which they all easily jumped right off of, but away from me. I then finally noticed that they weren't attacking me any more, so I stood all the way up to see what I had just done. I looked down at my sword, I hadn't imagined it, it was still rust brown with an extended lower guard.

"Well done Sanju, you've past today's test. You finally activated your Shikai." Urahara said, patting me on the shoulder.


	6. Arc

**A New Story Arc:**

"All right, I just have two questions right now. Would mind answering them?" I asked, still standing with my brown sword.

"Sure, shoot 'em off." Urahara answered.

"Ok, question one, what is Shikai?"

"An excellent question. You see, all Zanpakto have two different stages that are more powerful than just it's basic sword state. As you can see, this often times changes the sword's shape and/or color. And from what I can see, your sword has some sort of power over stone. This is what we call Shikai. A step above that is called Bankai, where the wielders Zanpakto becomes even more powerful and less restricted." Urahara said, finally giving me a somewhat straight answer.

"Ok, question two, WAS ALL OF THAT ABSOLUTLY NECESSARY!"

"Yes, yes it was. You see Sanju, if we were to teach you how to draw upon your Shikai the normal way like Rukia and I did, it would take you at least 50 years. But this way is much faster and a lot simpler. Now if that's all you have to ask, we shall continue from where we left off."

"Are you crazy? I'm dead tired from that onslaught you three threw at me, there's no way that I can keep going."

"Nonsense," Urahara said smiling, "if you have enough energy to keep Shiyouso in that form, you have enough energy to keep battling."

"Aw come on…"

And with that, all three of them kept at me. Dealing with Rukia's ice attacks were easier now that I could disrupt the ground they were on, but I also noticed that my sword was feeling a lot heavier. Not that I was losing strength from exhaustion, but my movements obviously took longer to execute. This made dealing with Ichigo and Urahara all the more difficult. On the up side though, I barely felt any pain from my bumps and bruises.

"Well, I think I'll call that good." Ichigo said as he slumped against his sword. "Rukia, isn't it time for us to make our rounds for the night?"

"Actually Ichigo, I was planning on taking Sanju with me. It's about time that he got experience in the field." Rukia said as her sword turned back to normal and slid back into the sheath.

"That would be all fine and dandy, except for two problems." I pointed out.

"And those would be?" Urahara asked as he put his sword back into his cane.

"One would be, how exactly do you kill a hollow? I mean, I learned how to be faster and better than one in combat, but Kido defiantly can't kill them."

"Good question, but the answer is very simple." Urahara answered. "You see, all Hollows have two characteristics in common. One is that there is a hole where their hearts should be. The second is the white mask that is made from that torn out heart. All it takes to kill a Hollow is to cut its mask deep enough so that your Zanpakto can purify their hearts so that they can move onto the Soul Society."

"Huh, that was actually a straight answer, I'm impressed." I said, earning a momentary glare of death from him. Best be moving on. "My second problem is that I can't seem to get Shiyouso back into his dormant state."

"Must you have problems at every single turn?" Rukia asked angrily. She stamped over to me, stood on her tiptoes and flicked me in the head.

"Ow! What was that for? You need to stop beating on me already." _It's pretty embarrassing._

"It got you to stop focusing on your Zanpakto, didn't it?" Ichigo smirked.

"Huh? What are you talking about? Of course it didn't. It's still…" I said looking down. Shiyouso was back to being its normal steel color and the guard had gone back to being normal. I looked at Rukia, "How did you do that?"

"Simple, you were still subconsciously feeding power to your Zanpakto. Don't you feel like you suddenly have a bit more energy?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah, I feel a lot better actually."

"There you go. Now, we are going to need to build up your own energy supply, but you should be good for now. Now, without further complaint's, we're going."

"But Rukia, can't I just…"

"Now!" She exclaimed while grabbing the nape of my robe, and yet again dragging me off. How insanely strong was this woman again?

…

"There, that should be the last one" I said as I killed a centurion Hollow. Man, these things come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

"You're right, I'm not picking up any other Hollow signatures. We should head back to Kisuke's shop." Rukia said as she flipped her cell phone shut. I was still getting over how a rural system like the Soul Society even had stuff like cell phones.

"Ok," I said as we both started hopping back to the shop. "Say, Rukia, did it take you 50 years to obtain Shikai?"

"Just about. I can't remember how long it took, it was so long ago."

How old was this woman? Better not ask her though; she might severely hurt me for it. The trip back was left in silence, but just as we were about five blocks away, I felt a tugging in my gut towards my left. I don't know if I'm sensitive or a fast learner, but in the short time I've been on patrol with Rukia, I've learned to trust this instinct on leading me towards hollows. But something was off in this feeling.

I stopped mid jump and looked over in the direction my gut was pulling me to. I couldn't see anything, but that wasn't surprising, it was a heavy residential area. Rukia noticed that I had stopped and came back.

"What is it? Is there something wrong over there?"

"You can say that. I've kinda gained this innate sixth sense about hollow location. And right now I'm getting a feeling that there's one over there."

Rukia looked puzzled and flipped open her phone. "Well, you're off this time Sanju. There's nothing over there even close to a Hollow, see?" She said as she handed me her phone. Sure enough, there were only blue blips of living beings, not even a green of a lost soul. And there defiantly wasn't a red Hollow signal. I was about to hand it back when I noticed a purple dot in a crowd of blue.

"Rukia, I don't think you mentioned what a purple dot represents."

"That's because there is no such thing as a purple dot."

"That's what I was afraid of." And before I knew it, I had tossed her her phone back and had dashed off towards my gut led. I got to the location within a minute to see why there would be such a group people together in a residential neighbor hood near twilight, and what exactly could the purple dot be.

As I kind of had figured, it was a group of ruffians trying to look intimidating, and failing quite horribly. Go watch Urahara fight Ichigo, now that was terrifying to try and watch.

I was trying to find which of the bunch was the purple, he had to be near the center of the group, but I couldn't tell. Then I heard the soft clanking of chains. I examined the surrounding area, but there wasn't anything obvious like a wind chime to even try to replicate the sound. I deduced it had to have come from the group, but none of them were wearing chains loosely enough to clatter. But there it was, a soft chain clinking.

"Sanju, what exactly do you think you're…"

"Shush." I hissed at her, but that was exactly what I needed. As soon as Rukia had arrived, one of the gang members glanced in our direction. Luckily, Rukia didn't know what I was looking at, and I was shushing her, so he didn't know I knew.

But I did. I signaled to Rukia to look away from the group, but to keep an eye on it. "We might have a problem. He's in the middle of the group, has a tight white tee shirt on and wearing the green cap backwards. I know he's not human and feels almost like a Hollow, but not quite and the others are acknowledging his presence."

Rukia paled a little bit at my description. "What was he wearing on his lower half?" She asked.

"As far as I could see he was wearing black jeans, but he wasn't wearing any shoes. Why? What's so important about everything he's wearing?"

Rukia never got a chance to answer, because right then the guy I had been describing jumped on me, and I fell tumbling to the ground. I landed on my back with him on top of me. He was starting to strangle me with his hands holding something transparent. I then realized these were the chains that I had been hearing.

He grinned down at me. "You may have found me Soul Reaper, but I'm _not_ going back to that hell hole."

I was about to pass out when Rukia came to the rescue and knocked him away from me. "I was afraid of this." Was all she said.

"What? What were you afraid of? How does he know Soul Reaper's anyways? And what 'hell hole' is he talking about that we're supposedly sending him to?"

"That's just it Sanju, this thing is a denizen of hell."


	7. A New Power 2

**A New Power:**

"What do you mean he's from hell? I thought there was only the Soul Society and the human world. Are you telling me there's more than that?" I gasped as I got up to face my assailant.

"More or less, I'll tell you later, right now we need to kill him." Rukia said as she readied herself against our opponent. Strangely enough though, he didn't seem to be in any condition to fight us. I was quickly proven wrong.

If it hadn't been for my last week's training, I wouldn't have even seen him move. I just barely deflected the chains that had been aimed at my midsection, but the force still pushed me back a good 10 feet. We both saw that this was not going to be an easy fight.

"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki." I heard Rukia say to my right, accompanied by the flash of white that came with the swords release. "First dance, White Moon!" Rukia said as she spun her sword so that the accompanying ribbon made a full circle around the sword. A white patch of ice appeared beneath our opponent, but instead of jumping up, he jumped to the side, just as the ice pillar formed from the circle.

"You're going to have to do better than that Soul Reaper!" He taunted at us, "Your little expedition to hell didn't go unaccounted for! We all know what you can do!"

Oh yeah? Let him try this, "Spilt, Shiyouso!" I said with the accompanying heavier brown sword. I slammed the blade into the ground and up rooted where the pillar was still affixed, toppling it over on top of the man. He turned around at this unexpected feat, and cringed for the impact.

I forgot, however, that we were in a residential area, and Rukia dissolved the ice before it did any collateral damage. "You idiot! You could have injured many innocent people!" She screamed at me.

The hell denizen just burst out laughing. "Of course! You can't purposefully hurt any living person! Oh, I'm going to have fun with you two." And with that, he started whipping his near invisible chains at both of us. Rukia was able to avoid or deflect his blows, but thanks to my release, I was much slower.

I might have dulled senses of pain, but it still hurts to get hit by a chain going at terminal velocity. I was slammed against the brick fence walls, and could barely move. _Damn,_ I thought,_ if this is what I have to face, I'm screwed. I can't do anything against this guy._

"_On the contrary, you can do a lot more,"_ I heard Shiyouso say, I couldn't figure out where. _"You have only used a fraction of my power, what's holding you back?"_

'For one, I'm a bit stuck in a wall right now. The second being that this is all I know of how to use you.' I thought back, hoping he would hear me.

"_Instead of being on the reactive side of this battle, try being the proactive one."_ Was all he said before I felt him leave. I opened my eyes which I just noticed I had had closed and surveyed how Rukia was doing. It was bad.

Our opponent was just dancing around Rukia, swinging his chains willy nilly, playing with Rukia. She kept trying to catch him, but every time it looked like she caught him, he moved out of the way before the ice got him. And for keeping the area untouched, it was practically a winter frost land. Rukia didn't have time to dissolve each pillar, so there were many still standing, in which he was taking advantage of as footholds and cover.

"He's just to fast." I sighed to myself, letting Shiyouso go back to his dormant state. There was nothing I could do to help Rukia. I couldn't beat her, Ichigo, and Urahara. Who was I kidding that I could take on this guy? But then I remembered the words of my gymnastics coach, "It's not over until you've won or you're out for good."

I never thought that those words would come to me, or even apply anywhere, but it seemed to fit here. I finally got enough feeling back into my limbs for me to pull myself out of the wall with surprisingly little damage to myself. I steadied myself and got a lock on my target. If he was going to be fast, I just needed to be faster. I started rushing him. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was doing it. I used Rukia's pillars as cover to get close to him without him noticing, and when I got close, I felt another surge of power, just like I had when I first released Shiyouso, but it felt different somehow. I just let the words rip right out from me.

"_**Splice, Shiyouso!"**_ I yelled as I hopped from pillar to pillar to get to him. I was in his face before he could even fully turn around. And after that, I was sailing straight past him, as his upper body fell foreword and his legs fell backwards. Strangely enough though, before either half hit the ground, both parts were enveloped in a searing flame. Both halves were gone without a single ash left behind.

I turned to Rukia with a fading smile. "Well, that wasn't so hard, now was it?"

"Sanju, what's wrong with your sword?" Rukia asked hesitantly as she pointed to my right hand.

"Nothing's wrong with i… whoa!" I said jolting as I saw what state my Zanpakto was in now. Instead of the bottom part of the guard being lowered, it was instead the upper half this time extended upwards. And instead of my sword being rust brown, it was instead a faded green. "I have no idea, I just did what felt natural."

"What was the release phrase you used just now?" She asked, obviously looking for answers.

"Um, splice I think."

"And for when you were controlling the ground?"

"Split."

"Interesting, we need to bring all of this up with Kisuke." She murmured as she dissolved the remaining ice pillars and sheathed her sword. "Come on Sanju, we need to get this all figured out."

"Which part, my sword or that guy from hell?"

"Both."

…

"So you say you saw a denizen from hell today?" Urahara asked.

"That's correct." Rukia replied.

"But that shouldn't be possible. I am sure that the Soul Society had sealed the damage to Hell's gates." Urahara murmured.

"They might just be persistent in getting out." Rukia offered.

"Oi! I thought you were going to explain to me how there isn't just the real world and the Soul Society." I broke in, interrupting whatever silent communications they were having.

"Huh, what? Oh, right. Well, you see Sanju, besides the Soul Society and the material world; there is also Hueco Mundo, Hell, and the space in between these worlds. Now, Hueco Mundo is the world where Hollows largely reside. Hollows are always looking for power, which they gain from eating souls, whether they are human, Soul Reaper, or other hollows. And when a Zanpakto purifies a Hollow, they are purified of all evils they did as a Hollow. But if a Hollow committed horrible sins as a human, their soul is sent to Hell to pay repentance before being sent to the Soul Society. We have, however, encountered a group that had learned how to escape Hell and come back to the material world. But why they would do it now, I have no idea." Urahara explained.

"Well great, that's just fantastic. So not only are we going to be killing Hollows, we're also going to be killing ex-Hollows, can this day _get_ any better."

"Kisuke, I also want you to take a look at Sanju's Zanpakto." Rukia said. Yep, just keeps on getting better.

"Why? What's wrong with it? We already know that it's a ground affiliated Zanpakto, what else is there?"

"Let's just go down to your basement and I'll show you." I said before Rukia could make this sound any worse.

After we made our way down and a bit in, I drew my sword. "Split, Shiyouso." As usual, the guard lowered and the sword turned rust brown. I slammed it into the ground and made three stone pillars, one high than the next. Then I released Shiyouso.

"I don't see the problem." Urahara stated, looking a bit disappointed.

"You will. Splice Shiyouso." I said, and just like last time, the guard raised and the sword turned a faded green. I then got to the top of the highest pillar within a half second. I left Shiyouso active for now.

"I can see where you're going with this now." Urahara said, a strange gleam in his eye.

I didn't quite like that gleam. Whenever I saw a gleam in his eyes, it usually meant something was going to be examined, thoroughly.

"What do you think Kisuke? I have never heard of one Zanpakto having multiple Shikai." Rukia questioned Urahara.

"It's true that I haven't either, but then again, have you ever heard of one Zanpakto having two users?" Urahara questioned back.

"I thought that had only ever happened to Captain Hitsugya and Sojiro Kusaka." Rukia said as she shot a concerned glance back. "Are you suggesting that he has multiple Zanpakto spirits within him?"

"I would say no." I responded as I got back just as fast as I had gotten up. "When I was in my own world, there was only myself and my Zanpakto's spirit. There weren't two or more of them there."

"The only conclusion I can come to then is that his Zanpakto has a jack-of-all-trades deal. Instead of being specialized in a certain element, he instead has access to all of them."

"But how many does that limit him to? From what I know of recorded Zanpakto, there are hundreds of different types." Rukia complained. "This could just overpower just about anything anyone does."

"I don't think so Rukia." I said. "For one, a jack-of-all-trades can only do so much in one area. If someone were to specialize in earth more than me, I don't think I could stand much of a chance. Second, I don't think Shiyouso can go straight from one to another. I tried that just now, but I had to revert back to the default state before I could change it."

"Well that's just fine and dandy for you, but now how are supposed to train you? It's easy enough for us to train you on how to use your earth abilities, but I don't think any of us can keep up with your new high speed abilities." Rukia said, beginning to pace.

"I think that's where I come in." Said a male voice from Urahara's feet.


	8. Scenery

**A New Scenery:**

"And just exactly why is that cat talking?" I asked, looking down skeptically at the thing. It was jet black with two very yellow eyes.

"Ah, if it isn't Yoruichi. Why have you come to grace us with your presence." Urahara said as he swept the cat up from underneath its forelegs and held him out.

"Kisuke, you know I don't like when you do that, right?" The cat asked annoyed.

"I know, but you hardly ever show up here like this. So, I ask again, why are you here? Are you hiding from Soi Fon again?" He asked jokingly, but I saw a glint of seriousness in his eyes.

Somehow, the cat managed to actually blush, I had no idea they could do that. "It's nothing like that. It's just easier to visit like this. And I came today because I heard from around the Soul Society that the Gates were acting up again."

"Wait, so that talking cat is from the Soul Society? And he's going to be teaching me how to use a fast Zanpakto? I'm so confused." I said out loud to anyone who was actually listening to me.

"Hush. We'll get to that in a second." Rukia said. She was at least half paying attention to my whining. "So what's the word on the Gates then?" She asked as she turned back to Urahara and the cat Yoruichi.

"Well, from what I heard from around the Soul Society, the Guardians have been letting the condemned souls free before they are supposed to leave." Yoruichi said.

"But that shouldn't be possible." Rukia said, "The Guardians are being meant to do one thing, and that's to keep the souls in Hell there, no matter which souls they are." She ended in a lower tone.

"Also," I joined in (The cat thing would have to wait) "we just ran into one just now, and he seemed determined not to get caught. So whatever is happening down there, the Guardians are not at fault."

"Very perceptive of you, I'm liking you better already." Yoruichi purred. He squirmed out of Urahara's hold, but just as quickly jumped right onto his shoulders. I know the human shoulders are not all that broad, but he seemed perfectly fine.

"So, my question is, how do we fix it?" I asked. "Not that I mean _we_ we, but as in Soul Society we. Seeing as nobody really knows what is releasing these denizens into the real world, and it doesn't seem like anyone is going to bother looking, what's going to happen?"

"I'm _really_ starting to like him. Where did you say you two picked him up again?" Yoruichi asked Urahara.

"Near Ichigo's school." Was all he answered.

"That might explain a lot."

Great, when I want to talk about me, they focus on the problem. When I want to talk about the problem, they talk about me. I might as well not even be in this conversation. But I just couldn't help myself.

"What does going to the same school as Ichigo have to do with anything?"

"You see, Ichigo has had so much latent energy that it actually drew a ton of spiritual energy to surround his general area. Most of that energy is concentrated mostly on the places that Ichigo frequently goes to, such as his home or school." Urahara explained. "You just happen to be one of the souls that was able to absorb much of this excess energy, not to mention being flooded with Ichigo's own energy. As it turns out, a study has determined that ones power can influence the way they think and act. Haven't you noticed how much more assertive you've been since Ichigo gave you his power."

Now that he mentioned it, he was right. When I first got stabbed by Ichigo and learned about all of this, I just wanted to run away and hide. But now here I was, in the middle of a conversation on how to straighten Hell. The old me would have handed this over to the police or something. Then again, they all probably would have thought of me as crazy. But I _defiantly_ wouldn't have purposely gone after something as dangerous as a denizen of hell.

"All right, fine, you have a point there. But I return to one of my original questions, how is a cat going to train me in fast combat?"

"Why, by facing you in faster combat of course." Yoruichi said from my shoulder. I started. How and when had he gotten to my shoulder? I looked at Urahara, but he only smiled and shrugged. Ok, so he was back to being his mysterious and unhelpful self.

"Ok Yoruichi, how exactly are you going to start my training regimen? Are you going to beat on me until I can keep up?"

"What? No. That's just barbaric. Who would train like that?" I jabbed my thumb over at Urahara, who just innocently whistled. "Ok, I can see where you're coming from. But no, I'm not going to attack you, you're going to try and hit me." And with that, he jumped right off my shoulder and onto a nearby boulder. "And the sooner we get this training underway, the faster we can take care of the problem of the Gates."

…

For being a cat, he was ridiculously fast. Every time I nearly got him, he would suddenly disappear and taunt me somewhere in the 180-degree blind spot behind me. I immediately found that there was a problem with this high-speed combat, I couldn't turn for anything. I had to do a near complete stop before I could spot Yoruichi and go after him again.

What infuriated me even more was that Urahara and Rukia decided to have a tea party while I was at this. Literally.

"Will you two quit that? It's very distracting." I shouted over to them at one point when I didn't even know where the blasted cat had even gone.

"Well then, we're doing our job quite nicely then!" Urahara shouted as he fanned himself with a paper fan. "You can't always expect to fight with no distractions Sanju!"

"And where do you think you're looking?" Yoruichi asked as he pounced onto my head, forcibly making me bow from the pressure of his landing. "We still have much to do." And with that he pounced off to my right.

"Enough!" I said as I swung my blade down. Surprisingly though, he did. I rushed over as fast as I could and picked him up. "Got you. Now can we deal with the problem at hand?"

"Yes, we can. First off, how did you make that?" he asked, pointing straight in front of him at nothing.

"Make what?"

"You'll see once you put your hand out." Yoruichi said, rubbing his nose. I put him down and felt out in front of me. My hand stopped about half way through extending, and I could swear I was touching something solid. "What's this?" I asked, looking down at the cat.

"I would have to say that's a solid wall of air. How did you do that? I didn't hear any chants for 'Void Wall', and even then I doubt you have that much power yet, or skill." Yoruichi said as he put his own paw up against the wall. But just as it had suddenly appeared, his paw fell to the ground and my hand dropped as it disappeared.

All I could do was look down and smile. "Well, whatever I did to make that, it seems as if I now have another tool to catch you with. Ready for round two?"

"Only if you are." He said, and dashed off. From that point on, I experimented with what I could do with this solidified air. I learned that the how long and how thick I made it determined how long it stayed. I also found it as a good way to turn in high speed by funneling it to turn me while I kept my speed.

Unfortunately, this didn't stop my problem with stopping on command. While in the middle of my chase of the black cat, two pairs of sliding doors appeared out of nowhere. I saw them coming from a mile away, almost quite literally. Out of it I saw a woman maybe five feet tall in a white coat with an orange interior step through looking around. When she saw Yoruichi, she seemed to brighten up immediately, and he seemed to lose all color in his fur.

"Yoruichi! I thought you might be hiding here!" She exclaimed.

"Now's not the time Soi Fon!" Yoruichi yelled.

"Watch out!" I yelled. All of this took little over two seconds, but in that time, I had just turned myself straight into this new person, and I could only make one air barrier at a time right now. To say the least, I crashed right into this new woman.

I'm not quite sure what happened directly after that. I think I blacked out, but that couldn't be right, because I was soaring through the dark with Soi Fon (I think that's what Yoruichi had yelled) in front of me. I also saw a lot of purple ooze everywhere.

And just as fast as I had crashed into this woman, we were in sunlight again. We skidded apart across the tiled floor, and as soon as I stopped, I was surrounded by four ninja's holding kunai to my throat.

What was this, feudal Japan? Ninja's don't exist, much less anyone using actual kunai. But there I was. Shiyouso had reverted back to normal as it had left my hand, and it was now at the feet of the woman I had crashed into, and she did not look happy.


	9. Plans

**A New Plan:**

"H-Hi." I said. That was about as much as I could get out before the kunai around my throat got a centimeter closer. I was currently looking up at a woman in a white coat with no sleeves and an orange interior looking _very_ pissed off at me. She was also wearing a sleeveless version of my robes, so I could only assume she was also a Soul Reaper, but why would ninja be under her control?

"Who are you and why did you assault me? Answer quick, and I might let them to end you quickly." She said coldly down at me. All I could do was point hesitantly at the kunai currently threatening me. She raised her hand and they stood back, but still at the ready.

"I'm Sanju Roku, and I didn't assault you, you just happened to get in the middle of my training." I said, sitting up into a cross-legged position. I would probably be on my ass again anyhow if I tried to stand.

"Training? Training for what?" She asked.

"Well, mostly to get a hold of my powers, but also to get prepped to help stop Hell from leaking more souls." I said with a straight face, this woman didn't seem like the type to mess with or hide the truth from, even a little.

But what I did say seemed to shock her, and confuse the rest of the men assembled around me. She started to storm towards me, but in the process, she kicked my Zanpakto. She looked down, picked it up, and looked back at me. "Is this yours?" She asked holding it a bit in front of her face.

"It is." I responded.

She then proceeded to walk over to me and grab the front of my robes and lifted me up until I was an inch from her. "You're coming with me." She hissed. She turned to the others. "Return to the barracks, I have to take this man to the Head Captain." And with that, they disappeared. And I thought I was fast.

"Ok, now that they're gone, you can-" I started, but then I suddenly noticed that I was being hauled along by the front of my robes by her across the sky. Just how ridiculously strong were woman in the Soul Society? And if they're this strong, how strong were the men?

As if the universe wanted to screw with me, we passed over a training ground with a multitude of craters with at least 51 men in there. I say 51 because it seemed to be one on fifty. One man with long spiky hair and an eye-patch was easily dispatching the others.

Great, as though I already didn't feel inferior to Rukia and this woman, that man was just crazy. And just as I was getting over that scene, I took in where I actually was. The least I could say was that I wasn't on Earth anymore, that I knew it.

I'm pretty sure the giant rock structure in the center of a city would have made itself famous for being a free standing cliff. And I'm pretty sure that a city this big would not go unnoticed, but I have never seen it before. There were actually low standing buildings as far as the eye could see, interrupted by irregular structures like a tower or walkway from time to time. By the time I was able to comprehend all of this, Soi Fon (if I heard Yoruichi right) had landed and was dragging me along toward a set of towering doors.

"I'm sorry to inconvenience you, but I can walk properly." I said.

"And how do I know you won't run as soon as I let go?" She inquired without either stopping or looking back.

"You have my Zanpakto and I'm pretty sure you can take me down easily." I pointed out. Without a second word, she dropped my robes and I fell into line behind her. Thank you schooling.

We marched along and as we got close to a pair of double doors, I noticed that there where two guards at the doors. What ever was going to happen, I hoped this person had the clearance for what she was doing. I needn't have worried; as soon as the guards saw us (or her at least) they began opening the doors. The inside was a lot blander than I was expecting. All it really was was a long wooden hall ending with a long tapestry and a high-backed chair.

I am just going to take a stab and guess the old man sitting upon said chair is the Head Captain, because as soon as we came to a respectable distance, Soi Fon got into a knelling position, I adopted the same position, hoping it was the right move.

"And what can I do for the head of the Second Division today, hmm, Captain Soi Fon?" The old man said in a rather gravely voice. I glanced up to get a better look at him, and what I saw startled me.

For one, he was missing his entire right arm, yet he still held a very old wooden cane. I could see faint scars over his bald head and face, yet his beard was so long that it needed its own bindings to keep it together. He was wearing the exact same kind of white coat as Soi Fon, but it just hung over his shoulders and was white on its interior. His eyes seemed shut, yet it also felt like they were boring holes into my very being.

"Sir!" Soi Fon began, giving a shock "This man attacked me-"

"Oi!" I said looking at her, but she just shot me a glare back, and I shut up.

"-As I was going to confer with Urahara and locate Madame Yoruichi as requested. When we landed back in the Soul Society, he claimed to have been training with Madame Yoruichi with this Zanpakto," She said, holding up Shiyouso "to stop the problem's we have been experiencing with Hell's gate. Sir!" She ended.

This seemed to get the old man's attention; because I could see his eyes open considerably. "Young man, what is your name?" he asked me.

"Sanju Roku, Sir." I said loud enough to be heard, but low enough that I hoped I wasn't sounding rude. This might have also been done because I felt like I had been slowly suffocating since I entered the room. For the life of me, I couldn't figure it out.

"Would you bring me your Zanpakto, Sanju?" he asked. I was actually starting to like this man; he didn't seem to be as hard as Soi Fon. Of course she had to be the bump in the road.

"But Sir! We can't trust what this man does or says until-"

"Captain, I understand your concern, but right now, I assure you, it is completely safe." The Head Captain cut in. Without a second word, Soi Fon slid my Zanpakto over to me and I picked it up slowly, just in case any of those ninjas were still around.

As I walked up to the Head Captain, the smothering sensation seemed to increase exponentially. About halfway to the Captain, I fell to my knee.

"Oh? What's the matter? Having a hard time getting the wind in you sails?" The old man asked. And then it clicked; he was the reason why I was having a hard time moving. I don't know how, and I don't know why, but this was obviously some sort of test. And I hated tests that didn't have a right or wrong answer.

I just grunted and stood up again. The going was slow and deliberate (not to mention hard), but I eventually did make it up to the captain. I handed him my sword like he had asked, and promptly collapsed.

…

"That still doesn't answer my question. Is he dead, or not?" I heard a rough male voice say in the darkness.

"If you would care to think you oaf, you can clearly see that his Zanpakto is still here, thusly meaning that he is indeed alive." I heard another man practically hiss his entire speech.

"That's all I wanted to know. _Hey kid!"_ the last part was accompanied with a kick, in the ribs. I gasped, doubled over on the floor I was already on, and opened my eyes. I immediately forgot the pain and backed away from the man who had just kicked me, because he was the man I had seen with the eye patch earlier taking out all of those men.

"Kenpachi! I'll have none of that to one of my patients." I heard a woman say from my left. She had very long hair that came over both of her shoulders and intertwined to end in her lap. Her eyes were also closed like the Head Captains, and smiling slightly. And even though they were weren't directed at me, I could feel their chilling evil glare.

"Yeah, whatever. At least he's awake now old man." Kenpachi said as he turned to the Head Captain scratching his head like the glare didn't matter. I noticed I was now sitting against the side of the hall, and there were now a total of thirteen other people in the room, each wearing a white coat, and now that I could see the back, I could also see that each had the same diamond design, but each had a number between two and thirteen on the back. I was guessing that the number one was for the Head Captain. I could also see that there was a strange tube with green liquid and my Zanpakto floating inside with a multitude of panels around it and the man wearing the '12' shirt working on them.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing to Shiyouso?" I started to stand up, but the lady kept a hand on my shoulder and gave me a less intense glare to stay still. I did, mostly because I felt my legs starting to give way halfway up.

"Shiyouso Hmm? Perfect! That was exactly what I needed, the name!" 12 said, he also was the man who practically hissed everything he said. He started typing more into the panels surrounding the tube. Shortly after, there were a few beeps and the fluid drained from the tube. 12 took Shiyouso from the tube, wiped it clean, and sheathed it. I then noticed that he also had my sheath. But before I could say anything, he tossed me my Zanpakto back, landing neatly on my lap. "That is indeed a real Zanpakto, and it is his." 12 said.

"Impossible!" Soi Fon said. "If that's supposed to be true, then where is he in the academy records? There should at least be a record of him entering the Soul Society."

"I can tell you this much, his Zanpakto is unprecedented, and there are no records of him existing inside the Soul Society until today." 12 said.

"Geez, you could have just asked. But apparently that's just a bit to direct for you people isn't it?" I immediately got glares from about half the people in the room, practically saying 'you were unconscious'. The other half appeared to not even care. "The reason why I'm not in any of your databases is because I'm still alive, well, technically. I honestly thought Rukia had cleared it with her superiors already. And the captain of the 12th division is right, I haven't been here before today." I hoped I had gotten that division thing right.

"He even seems smarter than I gave him credit for, he's already figured out the ranking status." 12 said. "But if it's to be true that you're still alive, how did you come by your power, hmm?"

"Um, would you believe me if I said that Ichigo Kurosaki stabbed me?" This elicited a round of gasps proceeded by a heated discussion. It seems that Rukia had been right; power sharing really wasn't a good thing.

"Captain Mayuri, did you detect any of Ichigo's spiritual energy while examining the Zanpakto?" The Head Captain asked.

"No, not a trace. Everything was all him. But if none were there, that would mean..." Mayuri mused. He then went into a silent rant to himself.

"Do you think you can stand?" The woman captain next to me asked.

"If I had a little support, probably." I said.

"Here then." She said, as she took my arm and lifted me along with herself as she stood. I grabbed onto Shiyouso as I stood. I had estimated right, any less than her helping me, and I would be right back on the ground. She lead me over into a duel line that the rest of the captains were lining up in. I also noted that the consul had up and disappeared into nothing.

"Now to business" The Head Captain said, not even fazed by the sudden disappearance of matter. "As it has become apparent, the guardians of Hell have started to let the condemned out into the real world. As we have no jurisdiction over Hell, the only thing we can do is to locate and send them back."

How arrogant and incompetent was this guy. Little to say for the other's who were agreeing with him. A sudden fit of rage got me right back on my feet. "I'm sorry to interrupt," I interrupted, "but is that it? I may have only been doing this for a week or so, but if Rukia is any measure of a regular Soul Reaper, then you people have no chance of defeating these guys."

"Oh?" Said a man next to me; I remember seeing him wearing the number 6. "What does my sister have to do with your evaluation?" Sister? Must be an older brother or something.

"The thing is, is that Rukia and I have already encountered one of these escaped denizens, and the two of us together were only able to barely take it down. Mainly by surprise."

"Oh really?" a blond man that was wearing the number 5 across from me asked. "If I remember correctly, Rukia Kuchiki is just about equal to that of a lieutenant, is she not?" Wait; if I could remember correctly from Rukia's horrible drawings, lieutenants were right below captains. Suddenly I didn't feel so bad losing to her.

"And a second point," I moved on, "The guardians aren't letting them out. From what I could discern from my communications with him, he was willing to do anything not to go back."

"And how do you know it wasn't just putting on an act?" A white haired kid down the row from me with 10 asked. "What if he did that to throw you off?"

"Well, the two halves of him I cut him into did fall into what Rukia confirmed to be the fire's of Hell." I said.

"Enough." The Head Captain shouted. "Thank you Sanju for your insight. Now that we know that it is indeed the souls doing, and not a fault of the guardian's, their plans do fall into our jurisdiction. We'll be moving out as soon as we can establish a steady link with Hell."


	10. Respect

**A New Respect:**

And that was it for the meeting. Captain Unohana, I learned she was the head of the medical division and the woman helping me, helped me back to the medical barracks. Apparently, I had stressed myself to move too much in a spirit field I wasn't ready for. She was actually surprised that I was even conscious, much less hobble. After an hour of intensive care, mainly consisting of two people holding a relaxing blue aura over me, I was allowed to walk around the premises freely.

Seeing as I wasn't a threat, I was free to wander. But since I also didn't belong anywhere, I just loitered around the barracks, learning a few basics on effective healing. I really preferred this type of kido to the combat types Rukia had been drilling me on. This type needed more care and precision than the fast and loose combat type. Now, I was not saying that combat kido doesn't require finesse, but healing was a lot slower, and I liked it.

Unfortunately, this tranquility didn't last long. I had just finished learning the basics for internal healing from Hanataro, when a blond with a crew cut came barging in. "I'm here for a guy named Sanju." He said, looking a bit bored.

"That would be me." I said warily. This guy didn't seem like the type to mess with. He seemed to brighten up, however, when he learned I was the guy he was looking for.

"Oh great! My name's Guntei, and my captain is looking for you."

"Your name's 'good guy'?" I snickered.

"Oh ha ha, everyone makes that joke. It's Guntei, get it right. Anyways, I don't see that these guys keeping you bed ridden, so I guess you're okay to come." He said, losing his patience.

"Uh, sure?" I said as I glanced over to Hanataro, who was in a cold sweat, but nodding vigorously. "I guess I can go. I have nothing better to do here. See you around Hanataro." I said as I waved and walked away with Guntei. He set a pretty fast pace; I had to pretty much jog to keep up.

"So why's your captain looking for me?" I asked as I tried to keep up.

"He says he has some business with you." Guntei said simply.

"And which squad captain is he?"

"Captain of the eleventh squad, Kenpachi Zaraki." Guntei replied with a bit of pride. That made me stop right where I was. If I remember correctly, the man who had kicked me was named Kenpachi, and he had defiantly been wearing the captain's white coat with eleven on it. I did not want to meet this man in private. He could kill me for real.

"What 'cha stopping for?" Guntei asked as he turned.

"I am _not_ meeting that man." I said resolutely. "From what I've seen of him, he'll try to kill me the second he sees me." This just made Guntei laugh, which confused me.

"That's only if you piss him off enough or intrigue him." This really confused me. A man who only killed you if you angered him or peaked his interest? That didn't sound sane! "Come on, the captain's not that bad, he'll just probably want a duel with you."

I started walking with Guntei again, but deliberately at a much slower pace. "Why does he want a duel with _me_? I just got here. Besides, I already saw him laying waste to 50 guys this morning."

"Ah, so you saw his warm-up routine. You see Sanju, Squad Eleven treasures strength above all else. And ever since his fight with an Arrancar, higher level of Hollows; the one he fought known as Yammy, he's been drilling us like that to better all of us."

"So your captain only wants to see my strength?"

"Pretty much. The only man or beast that I have even heard of beating the captain was Ichigo Kurosaki, which, rumor has it, is who gave you your power."

"Yeah, don't remind me." I mumbled as I felt over where he had stabbed me. "So, how is he going to asses my strength?"

"Probably by combat." Guntei shrugged.

"With practice equipment?" I asked hopefully.

"Are you crazy? Of course not. The only way to asses any type of strength fully is in actual combat."

"So, I'll probably be fighting one of the subordinates, right? I'm sure he wouldn't want to go against a stranger without some sort of preliminary fight, right?"

This actually gave Guntei pause as he thought. He then shrugged and kept walking. "That entirely depends on how the captain's feeling today." I contemplated running away, but we were already there.

…

"So here you are." Kenpachi grinned at me. I tried my best not to show that I was shaking, but I don't think I was doing a good job. His demonic smile widened even more.

We were currently at the edge of a giant area where multitudes of men were fighting. Most of them fighting sword to sword, but I saw some fighting with some sort of different instrument, but still physically fighting. Kenpachi was even sitting and I felt threatened that he would dismember me in a second. It all seemed to diffuse somehow when a small pink haired girl plopped over his shoulder. It just seemed too comical to be threatening, so I could relax a little.

But not by much. I could still feel that I could die, but not as much. It also lowered the tension when the little girl spoke.

"Hey Kenny, who's the new guy?"

"He's here for the regular test." Kenpachi said, annoyed by the girl, but he still let her stay there. I also noticed he hadn't answered her question. That didn't seem to matter though, because she immediately latched onto what Kenpachi had said.

"Oooohhh, that must mean he's really strong, huh, Kenny."

"That has yet to be seen Yachiru." Kenpachi grinned at her. Instead of cowering away, like any sane person would do from that grin, she just laughed. I pegged her as dangerous and not entirely sane right then and there.

"So, what is this test?" I asked, hoping this was all I had to ask. Kenpachi turned back to me, completely serious.

"It's simple really. All you have to do is fight and win. Anything goes, as long as it's clean."

"So Shikai is okay?" This just made him raise an eyebrow.

"You already know Shikai?"

"Well," I scratched my head, "taking from what's around here, my Shikai might not fit to what I've been told about this place."

"Bah. It doesn't matter right now that your Shikai isn't a combat type; you're not joining my squad anyways. No, I just want to see how good you are."

"And I can choose anyone to fight?"

"Yep."

"Then I choose the guy who escorted me here, Guntei."

"All righty then. _**Hey!**_" He yelled out across the field, making everyone stop what they were doing. "Where's Guntei?"

"Right here sir!" Guntei announced from around the right side, coming towards us. "What do you need captain?"

"This kid here has chosen you to be his opponent in the test." Kenpachi stated simply. I heard some murmuring come from the crowd, and they all immediately backed up to make a large space for both of us to fight in. I walked towards the center of the circle with Guntei following me, but he looked confused and a bit scared.

"What's wrong?" I asked, hoping I hadn't done something wrong.

"Well, I'm also new to the squad, so I'm also seen as the weakest right now." He confided. I just smiled back.

"Well if that's it, isn't this battle an excellent way to prove you're good?"

"Sort of, but I barely made it in here to begin with, why do you think _I_ was sent to get you? I'm the newest of the new guys."

"Well," I shrugged, "you brought me here, you fight me." I said as I drew Shiyouso. He drew his blade and crossed it with mine.

"Begin!" Kenpachi shouted. Guntei immediately drew his sword back and went for a cut at my left arm, but I deflected it and went for a stab at his feet. He swiped it aside and stabbed at my chest. I knocked it aside and moved back. We had a few more clashes, but none of them gave a single wound to either side.

And he barely passed? He was fighting me on par, probably better, seeing as he hadn't even broken a sweat yet. The more complex I tried to hit him, he easily matched me. I finally gave up on a fair match and decided to use Shikai, which might give me an advantage. After one more clash, I pushed him back to give me time for my release.

"Split, Shiyouso!" Just like before, the blade turned rust brown and lowered the guard. It didn't faze Guntei, and I hadn't meant to, he had probably seen multiple Shikai in his time here. He charged at me again, but I didn't block. He got a solid hit on my left upper arm. I felt him stop and the crowd murmur, and I smiled. The blade hadn't cut me at all; it was resting right on the skin. I had gambled on Shiyouso's added defense, and I had gambled right.

I gave an uppercut at Guntei and got a good slash at his chest. He stumbled back and we both saw the damage I caused. It wasn't deep, I could tell, but the cut reached across a good portion of his abdomen. I got back into a ready stance, but this time Guntei was smiling.

"Well, looks like I had you pegged wrong Sanju. I guess we have to take this fight a bit further now. Smash, Hanmaa!" And with that, Guntei put both hands on the hilt of his sword and started pulling them apart. I was shocked when the hilt _moved_ with his hands. It also looked like the blade of his sword crumpled under the moving guard. When there was about six inches from the tip, the metal took a cylindrical shape until his sword had become a hammer. All of this took less than a second, and at a second, the hammer was already coming down on me. I barely managed to dodge out from underneath hit. I actually started to hear cheering from the crowd now.

I didn't have time to look to see who, though, because Guntei was already raising his hammer for another round, but I was ready now. He took a horizontal swing this time, but I ducked under it. As I stood up I smirked "Missed me." As I postured to take another swing at his midsection. But he smirked back "Really?" The hammerhead smashed me in the side of the head.

But how was that possible? He was in a full batter swing; he couldn't have easily swung back. I was in a blind spot even! Lucky for me, Shiyouso was in the defensive; so the hit didn't crush my skull or make me black out, only knock me over. I looked back and saw that the hammerhead was under his hands. I then watched as the hammerhead quickly disappeared and popped up on the other side.

"Surprised? It's the special ability of Hanmaa, it can move the hammerhead to either side in an instant, that way I have fewer blind spots." Guntei boasted.

"Lame. At least Shiyouso can do this!" I said as I slammed Shiyouso against the ground, making two small pillars of opposing height pop up under Guntei's feet. He topped over to his left, dropping Hanmaa, and I was there over him, pinning his arms to the ground with my feet and held my sword over his neck.

I then heard furious clapping coming from my right. I shot a look over and saw Yachiru bouncing up and down. I could also see the others gathered around also looking at her. "Yea! That sure was fun, huh, Kenny?" She said as she looked up at Kenpachi.

"Sure was." He smiled. "All right, that's enough of that. Good match you two." And with that he stood up and walked away, along with Yachiru hopping up on his shoulders. I heard a few gasps as he left, along with serious chatting.

"What's up with all of this?" I asked as I got off Guntei and helped him up. Guntei brushed himself off and went over to pick up Hanmaa. As he did, it reverted back into being a sword, which he proceeded to sheath. I also reverted Shiyouso and put him away. Guntei came back and led me back to the barrack. "The reason why everyone is so shocked is because the captain never makes any comments on any fight, _ever_. He usually just replies to whatever Lieutenant Yachiru says and tells us the fight's over. Being told we had a good fight is _incredible_!"

I was impressed with just how much the men in this squad respected each other just over one fight. After we closed Guntei's wound and stitched up our uniforms, we got a flood of people asking to spar with us.


	11. Friends

**A New Friend:**

I sparred for quite a while after my fight with Guntei. While sparring, I learned just how little I did learn from Urahara and Ichigo. But the method used was very much the same, whack at each other until you challenge the fight given. I actually overcame three opponents when a man walked up to me and pulled me aside. I found this strangely formal for a man from the eleventh squad.

"Are you Sanju?" He asked. So I guess he wasn't from the squad, everyone already knew me from here due to my fight with Guntei. He was as tall as myself and had short brown wavy hair that stopped just short of his eyes.

"I am. And who would you be?" I asked in return.

"My name is Shinrai, and I have been asked by my captain to escort you to see him."

"Great, another escort." I said exasperatedly. Shinrai raised an eyebrow. "Fine, fine. Lead away." I waved. As we left, I waved to Guntei, and got a crowd of waves back, apparently I had made quite a good name for myself in the barracks.

After a bit of a walk of silence, I decided to get a bit of information about whom I was going to meet. "So, which captain do you serve under?"

"I serve under Captain Kuchiki of the sixth division." He answered promptly. I was silently pondering for a second where I had heard Kuchiki before, before it hit me like a brick. Rukia Kuchiki. So that meant that this man was in fact related to Rukia. This realization also made me pale. From what I remembered of him, he didn't seem to pleased when I had mentioned she needed my help to beat the denizen of hell.

"Can you tell me how your captain usually is?" I asked, hoping Shinrai would give me a better description of his usual tendencies. Maybe he had just been in a bad mood.

"The captain is never one to express his emotions." 'Really?' I thought, 'He seemed to wear them quite obviously.'"He also cares deeply that his squad and family are kept safe."

I mulled what Shinrai said as we arrived and he escorted me into the barracks to the captain's office. It seemed rather similar to the fourth squad barracks, but I really couldn't say about the eleventh, I hadn't really been inside. As we stood in front of a door with a plaque engraved with 'captain', Shinrai turned to me. "Just remember, be as polite and as formal as you can to the captain."

"Alright." I said, and with that, Shinrai tapped on door.

"Come in." I heard the familiar voice say. Shinrai opened the door and stepped in. I followed close behind and stepped to the side to see the room. It was fairly big, with books lined across both opposing walls, and a desk with the captain behind it. I also saw that there was a man with spiky crimson hair in a ponytail with a white bandana around his forehead. With a quick glance, I also saw there was a badge on his left arm with the number six and an insignia of a camellia flower. Wow, I never thought science class would have been applied like this.

"If you will excuse me captain, I think this conversation is for private ears." The crimson haired man said.

"No Renji." Captain Kuchiki said, holding up a hand. "This concerns you as well."

"Very well sir." Renji said, simply standing aside, giving the captain a full view of Shinrai and myself.

"I shall formally introduce myself then, new comer." Captain Kuchiki said, standing up. "I am Byakuya Kuchiki, captain of the sixth division of the Gotei 13. This is my lieutenant Renji Abarai." He said as he gestured to said man. "You have already met our twelfth seat, Shinrai Midoten. Now, may you introduce yourself?"

"Uh, sure. My name is Sanju Roku of Karakura. I recently became Soul Reaper about a week or so ago." I said formally. Captain Kuchiki simply nodded.

"And how long have you known my younger sister, Rukia Kuchiki?" At the mention of her name, I could plainly see Renji tense up, but I continued.

"That I'm kind of unsure of." I replied hesitantly.

"Oh? Why so?" He asked with a raised brow.

"For some reason, I feel like I met her first when she and Ichigo saved me from being eaten by a hollow, but I also feel like I met her when she transferred in as a freshman. But also when she came in and knocked Ichigo…out…by her…hand…" I trailed off. "Now that I think about it, I also recognize you, Renji. Yeah, you, Ikkaku and Yumichika from squad eleven, Rangiku and Toshiro. And if I'm not mistaken, Toshiro is the captain of squad, um, ten?"

"That's correct." Captain Kuchiki said simply. "I see you're recalling a time from before the war. Renji, do remember this man?"

"I can't say that I do captain."

"Ah, don't worry about it, I'm not a very noticeable guy." I said, but it stung a bit. That was the exact reason why I was here, right? To be noticed? But the captain moved on before I could wallow anymore.

"So you've known Rukia for quite a bit, but not as a Soul Reaper?"

"That's right sir. I only knew she was a Soul Reaper a week ago. Before that is all jumbled."

"So how has she been teaching you?"

"Sir?"

"Any superior should know when to train a rookie in a dangerous field. Not doing so would risk everyone in the party otherwise. Rukia should know this. So I ask again, how has she been teaching you?"

"Um, she mostly taught me Kido. Combat and such were dealt with by Ichigo and Urahara."

He stared at me for a second before turning to Shinrai. "Where did you pick up Sanju?"

"From the squad eleven training grounds sir."

I could barely see a flicker of a smile, but it was gone as soon as it popped up. "Very well, seeing as you could survive in that pit, I take it you were sufficient enough. I would like to see how well my sister's training has brought you along." Oh man, I did not like where he was taking this. "I think a show of skill is required here."

…

Not five minutes later, Shinrai and I were standing face-to-face, swords drawn, in an area similar to where I was battling the eleventh squad. Except this place had the men standing around the field, there were considerably fewer impact craters, and only Shinrai and I were to battle. Captain Kuchiki and Renji were both sitting in seats on the patio of the barrack, kind of like how Kenpachi and Yachiru had.

"Begin!" Kuchiki shouted, and at that Shinrai charged at me, coming in with a mid sweep. I blocked, but he was gone as soon as the blades met. I was barely in time to throw my sword over my shoulder to block the swing coming at my back. Ichigo's lessons on perception really did help.

I don't think Shinrai was ready for me to block, because even with the disadvantaging stance, I was able to shove him off. I turned to face him, but he was gone again. "All right, if, we're going to play that game." I said as I deflected a blow to my right, "Splice, Shiyouso!" As before, the hilt grew up and the blade became a faded green. With the faster eye, I could tell that Shinrai was coming in for a foreword thrust, so I sidestepped.

Just like the problem I have, Shinrai couldn't stop in time to move to the change, so I took three quick stabs at his side, making three tiny gashes with a tiny amount of blood from each. I then moved away, leaving him to remain still in confusion until he spotted where I had gone.

"And if we're going to play _that_ game, I think we're going to be needed on equal footing. Don't think that I got my seat for nothing." As he said that, he drew out his sheath and crossed it with his sword in front of him. I was intrigued with what he was doing, and if I knew anything, he was pulling out his Shikai. "The frozen walks!" He said as he dragged them away from each other and I could see white sparks coming from the connection. "Hoko no Tsundora!" And with that, there was a final white flash that I had to close my eyes to not get blinded by it. When I opened my eyes, I was greeted by seeing Shinrai Holding two white tonfa with blue hinting.

"All right, if I'm going to go with color coding, you can control ice, can't you?" I called out to him. But I couldn't be to right, there was to much smoke coming from the tonfa.

"Not quite. How about I give you a demonstration!" And suddenly, he disappeared. I whipped around just in time to see him swing his tonfa right for my face. I lunged backwards, again, thanking I had taken gymnastics. Not wanting to end up on my back like my squabble with Jinta, I tried to move into a back flip, but I slipped and landed on the ground. Something hard landed in my lap, and I look down to see what it was. It looked like a little rock. I go to pick it up, but as soon as I touch it, it shatters like glass.

"Confused on what I just did?" He taunted.

"A little bit, yeah." I admitted.

"Good!" And he disappeared again. His flashstep was really starting to get annoying. I picked up Shiyouso again and looked around. I couldn't catch up with him. Every time I thought I caught a glimpse of hime, Shinrai was gone. How was it that he was able to move fast enough for me not to be able to see him with Shiyouso?

"Your wondering how it is that I can move faster than you can see me, aren't you?" I spun around and saw him standing right behind me, with a large smirk on his face. I swung at him, but he was gone in an instant. "You were close when you said I control ice. Care to guess again?"

I shivered at the thought that I was close, but not spot on. Then I realized, I wasn't shivering from the thought, I was _actually_ shivering "You control the temperature, don't you?"

"Very good. Unfortunately, I can only make it go down, but I can freeze anything I touch. The ground, even the air. I haven't been getting faster, you've been getting slower." That weapon was scary. The fact that it could do that much damage sent a shiver down my spine, or maybe that was the lowering air temperature again. Now that he mentioned it, I did notice the air cooling down. This was bad, I had to come up with something fast. Then I thought, if I couldn't keep up, what would he do if I slowed down on purpose? I readied myself again, focusing. But as I was doing that, Shinrai got a blow at my side. I landed a few feet away, and Shinrai was crouching over me in a second, smiling. "That would be my win." He said.

"I don't think so." I grinned.

"Halt!" Byakuya called from his seat. "The match is a draw!"

"What!" Shinrai exclaimed and stood up, hitting his head against a rock pillar directly behind him. "What? But how did that? You!" He exclaimed as he looked back down at me. The crowd started dispersing as the captain and lieutenant got up and left. Shinrai made sure to step away from the pillar and sheath his sword before helping me up. "How did you do that?"

"Simple." I said as I lifter up a rust brown sword for him to see.

"But I thought that you were speed based?" He said, confused as I released Shiyouso and sheathed him.

"In part, I am. But in another part, I'm earth bound. When you came in for your last hit, I was able to feel you coming. I had already released Shiyouso and was waiting with Shiyouso in his earth state. When I hit the ground, so did my Zanpakto, so when you stood over me, I made pillar behind you."

"But how did you know that would work?"

"Simple, you were confident I couldn't track you." I patted him on the shoulder. "And I had the element of surprise." I ginned.

"Wow, you have some very sharp senses." Shinrai said as he stuck out a hand. I gladly shook it, seeing as I had just made yet another friend.


	12. Experiment

**A New Experiment:**

I spent a good amount of time at the squad six barracks. Thanks to the captain's insistence that his officers be educated in the law they were enforcing, Shinrai was able to give me plenty on how the Soul Society worked on the inside. I also found out from some hints that this had been relaxed a bit due to the captains repeated encounters with Ichigo.

I learned in greater detail of how Ichigo's exploits had helped reshape a broken system. But Hell was one thing he hadn't changed their stand on. As the Head Captain had said, if the guardians were doing something, it was out of a Soul Reapers hands. Guardians had full reign over Hell, no questions to be asked or answered. I learned that Ichigo's sisters had even been kidnapped into Hell, and he went in and got them back. And the only reason he even got out was because the guardians deemed Ichigo 'necessary'.

I was still studying how souls were processed and transferred, when I suddenly felt a wire wrap around me under and around my arms. Before I could react, I was yanked from my chair and out the window. I came to be dangling in front of yet another Soul Reaper who's hair was black as coal, raggedy as though it had never seen a comb, and fell over his right eye.

"Let me guess, your captain wants to talk to me, doesn't he?" I sighed. It had to be a he, Unohana and Soi Fon were done with me, so that only left nine male captains left.

"Captain Mayuri was right, you _are_ perspective. Well then, lets be off." He grumbled, and leapt of, not even bothering to undo to wire around me, instead leaving it there to drag me behind him. I then saw that the wire wrapped around me all led back to a mass of wires around his left arm. I really wondered what it could be.

Then I started thing back to where I had heard the name Mayuri before. It had to have been one of the people in the captain's meeting, but what number was he? I looked down as we started passing over into a factory area. I was surprised to see such a thing that had been all rural until now. I also saw the number twelve on top of some of the buildings.

Now why would someone do that? And why did the number twelve send shivers down my back? Then I remembered. Twelve was the number of the man that took Shiyouso while I was unconscious and experimented on it. But then again, I had a piece of my mind to deal with him, so I guess this one was a blessing in disguise.

We landed outside of a low standing building and my carrier released me from his wire like tentacles. They retracted even further and gathered further into a blade. He then sheathed it. I was confused though, it was such a small blade, like a big kitchen knife, you would never be able to kill a hollow with something like that.

I would have contemplated this further, but my escort was already opening the door and going inside. I followed after him into a dark room that seemed to only be lit by computer screens. My bafflement of technology in a rural society kicked in again as I gawked at everything around me.

"I brought him like you asked, can I go back now?" My escort asked the man in the captain's coat.

"Yeas, yes, go back to whatever you were doing Nazuno." Mayuri waved without looking away from his computer. Without a second word, Nazuno walked to one of the walls, slid open a door, and walked out. I was still wondering how he saw the door as Mayuri turned to me.

"So, have you figured out why I want you here?" He asked, looking me up and down. All of my resolve of talking with him disappeared with question.

"N-Not really. I figured it would have to do with how I became a Soul Reaper." I said, trying not to show my fear. I was more scared of Kenpachi of being killed, but this man scared me with pain that I would have to tell him how horrible it was. And then go through worse, all without dying.

"Hm, well, yes and no. You see, what's so interesting about you, is that you have no residual power of Kurosaki in you. When Rukia Kuchiki gave him her power, which was what he was running on until he found his power, but only after hers was taken from him. On your own account, Ichigo gave you power. On your readings, however, there is only your signature, and trust me, I have plenty on Kurosaki. I can tell you have no common connection." Mayuri lectured

"So what I want to know is, how? How can one fully assimilate ones power as his own? If I knew this, we could transfer a dying soul reapers power on to another without it being lost, even empowering the receiver."

"And how do you want to figure that out?" I asked, hoping it wasn't going to be anything to painful.

"Well, by asking of course." And before I could ask "Who?", I felt a needle in my neck. The paralysis was instantaneous as I fell on my back with no feelings in any of my body. As I could only look straight up, I saw a woman with black hair in a long braid standing above me with syringe.

"It seems your new paralysis serum works captain." She said in a monotone.

"Of course it would Nemu, do you doubt my work? Now get him to observation, we have a conversation to watch." And with that, Nemu lifted me over her shoulder and took me into an adjacent room that had an arrangement of instruments around a flat metal table. She laid me down and took out another syringe.

"And what's that one going to do?" I asked nervously.

"Just put you to sleep." She said in the same monotone, yet I somehow discerned a soothing quality to the words. She injected my arm, and a few seconds later, I was out.

…

I woke up, stretched, and yawned. Then it hit me that I couldn't move and snapped my eyes open. I was back in my inner world of the glade and singular, red leafed tree. I sighed and stood up. As I stood, I could see Shiyouso crawling around in some of the trees branches, seemingly oblivious to my appearance.

"Hey Shiyouso!" I called up to him. He looked down and around until he saw me. He snapped open his wings and glided over to me. He flapped a few times to upright himself before he landed a few feet away upright.

"What are you doing here Sanju? I didn't feel you come in." He asked, a bit concerned.

"I was forced in here by a crazy man looking for answers." I said before getting a sharp pain in my forehead. I cringed and grabbed at my head.

"What's wrong?" Shiyouso asked as he looked around.

"Nothing, I just think that Captain Mayuri has tapped into me somehow to get me to do what he wants." I said, and with that, I got a wave of relief through my head. Ok, so a no is pain, a yes is relief, this was going to be interesting.

"He can force you here and hurt you? Who is this man?" Shiyouso asked, wings flared, growling.

"Don't worry about it Shiyouso, they're just reactions to what I'm here for." And with that Shiyouso calmed down, but he still seemed a bit peeved.

"So why did he send you here?"

"Well, he's wondering how you were able to come into existence without a trace of Ichigo Kurosaki's power." I conveyed. This only seemed to confuse Shiyouso.

"The reason I have none of Kurosaki's power is because I didn't come from his power, I came from yours." I pretty much had taken that to be the case, but I don't think Mayuri would take that for an answer.

"No, see, I became a Soul Reaper because Ichigo gave me some of his power. So there had to be at least a little of his power in some sort of residual effect that had to be a base for you."

"And like I said, you alone are what I came from. I have had no influence from Kurosaki." I just sighed.

"That's all I'm getting out of him." I said up to the sky. After that, I felt a release on my mind. Shiyouso looked a bit shocked and looked down at me, like that was the first time he had seen me. "I think he's gone now."

"I can tell, you actually feel like you're here now." Shiyouso sighed. "But really, who is the man who sent you here?"

"I think he's the head of some sort of research branch of the Soul Society or something. He's some sort of mad scientist that likes to have all of the answers on everything and everybody. He even tested you at one point."

"So that's what that was. I felt really uncomfortable and felt like I was being poked at. But then it all went away and I felt your connection again." He smiled. He had a toothy grin like Kenpachi, but it felt a lot warmer.

"I'm glad to have met you Shiyouso."

"And I you, Sanju." He said as he extended his hand. I shook it, and with that, I returned to consciousness.

…

"Well, that was disappointing." Mayuri sighed as I came back around. I sat up and over the table.

"Sorry to disappoint sir. But what else would you expect? I only got Shiyouso after Urahara forced me into my inner world." That made the captain pause.

"You mean to tell me that your Zanpakto _didn't_ appear right as Kurosaki gave you his power?" He asked, enthralled, completely dropping what he was doing with the machines around the room.

"Yeah, why does that matter?"

"Because that _does_ mean that you didn't receive your Zanpakto from Kurosaki. That you _did _attract Shiyouso by your own being. But where did the power Kurosaki give you go then? You are dismissed." He waved me away while he tended to his machines.

I got off the table and left out the door I saw Nazuno leave through. As I got into the hallway, I sighed. This stop had been interesting, but I had nothing to gain from it. At least at the last two, I had learned how to fight and gained knowledge. Here, I had just been a guinea pig.

"Just been used as a guinea pig by the captain?" I heard from my left. I jumped and looked to see that Nazuno was leaning against the wall next to the door.

"What are you doing here? I thought that you had gone back to work?"

"I had no work to get back to." He replied as he got off of the wall. "Come on, I'll show you out. You can actually get lost here easily. I've actually found a few wandering around after giving a report before. A couple none the better." And with that he headed off.

"So what do you do here? You know, when you're actually doing something." I asked as I caught up.

"I actually don't work here. I'm more of an experiment." He waved off.

"You mean like I just was?" He seemed to consider this for a moment then nodded.

"Somewhat I suppose. But I'm a bit more _hollow_ than you are." I perked on his choice to emphasize the word hollow, but I let him continue. "I'm more or less checked up on to make sure I stay sane." Alright, now that worried me. I started to wonder if I could actually trust this guy. "And here we are." He said as we walked outside. I squinted at the sudden change of the gloom to sunshine. Well, I guess I could trust him, for now.


	13. Circle of Friends

**A New Circle of Friends:**

"So, what do you mean by all of that? Being an experiment and all?" I asked as Nazuno and I wandered around the complex.

"Do you want a bite to eat?" He asked as he looked at me like I hadn't said anything.

"Huh? I-I guess, but where could we…"

"Ah, don't worry, I know just the place." He said as he drew his Zanpakto, and same wires that had brought me here came out over his right arm. And, once again, he wrapped them around me and took off. I didn't even bother asking now. What did intrigue me is how he released his Zanpakto without a release. It was also on his right now, not his left. I pondered this until he put me down and I was standing outside a pub.

"All right, you guys honestly need to decide what era you're in."

"Does that really matter? It's simple when it needs to be and complex when it's necessary. Besides, food's food. Now you coming or not?" Nazuno asked as he was already at the door.

"I guess." I sighed as I went after him. The place was actually pretty lively, plenty of men sitting around chatting up a storm. It wasn't all that bad, it did have a nice volume, but it all seemed to disappear as soon as Nazuno stepped in. But as soon as I came in behind him, I heard two very familiar voices.

"Hey Sanju! Nice to see ya coming around here!" I heard Guntei call from a corner of men that I recognized as a part of the eleventh squad. The other wasn't so happy.

"There you are Sanju!" Shinrai exclaimed as he came from the bar. He then glanced over at Nazuno. "And I guess I have _you_ to thank for sending me on this wild goose chase. Thanks to you, my captain sent me on a missing persons search."

"Hey now Shinrai, Nazuno was only doing what his captain was telling him to do." I confronted Shinrai. He just snorted.

"He doesn't have a captain, not anymore at least." He growled.

"Hey, come on now," Guntei said as he approached us. "You say that he was abducted, but here Sanju is, perfectly fine. No reason to get all uppity on a Vizard like that, You know they had nothing to do with their condition."

"But he's different!" Shinrai snapped at Guntei. "He's not only a Vizard, but a Hollow! Or have you forgotten that rampage?"

"Whoa, whoa, hold it you two." I said as I got between the two. I could see Guntei's clenched fists, and Shinrai's grip on his Zanpakto. "I am in the dark on all of this 'Vizard' stuff. Why not fill me in." I looked around. "and maybe in a place a bit more private."

"My thoughts exactly." Nazuno said from beside me, making all three of us jump. He had been behind me before, but now he had a tray with four beer's and a number plaque. "The bartender said room three's open. Come on." And with that, he turned and left. I had no choice to follow after him, the other two following after us.

Room number three was a slightly raised room with a sliding door and a low rectangular table. Nazuno took a seat with his back to the wall, placing the tray on the table, and seeing as I was more likely to take it, I sat to his left. Guntei and Shinrai sat across from us.

"Well, seeing as we're all here, might as well introduce ourselves." I began.

"Don't bother." Shinrai huffed. "Guntei and I go back from the academy. And Nazuno here is a legend of his own."

"Well, if that's all set and good, why not tell me what these 'Vizards' are." I said, leaning in. We each grabbed a beer, Nazuno taking a deep drink, while the rest of us just looked at ours. Guntei, thankfully, broke the ice.

"I take it that since you went to squad six, you've read up on the recent war."

"Yeah, I read about it."

"Well, you see, before all of that, Aizen took to experimenting on Soul Reapers to be his Hollow slaves. This is what a Vizard is, a Soul Reaper who obtained Hollow powers. Nazuno here was one of them." Guntei explained.

"Yeah," Shinrai continued "Except he wasn't with the first ones. Aizen kept on with his experiments on Soul Reaper Hollowfication for a while after the initial incident. Nazuno was Aizen's lieutenant for a _brief_ time before being experimented on. The Hollowfication process only worked on lieutenant and higher class Soul Reapers, he only barely made it. But that scrape by turned him full Hollow, with his Zanpakto to use."

I started to regard Nazuno in a different light. I took a sip of my beer, and nearly spit it out. I thought being a spirit might make it ok to have a beer, but it turns out I still couldn't take it. But, as to not be impolite, I drained the whole thing in one go. I really didn't see how Nazuno had done it. But I heard him sigh and I looked at him.

"After that time, I went on a rampage, both here and in Hueco Mundo. I acted like a full-scale Hollow for a good ten years. That was, until I ran into Aizen once more in Hueco Mundo. I then remembered how I had come to be like I was, and who I was. I broke free as myself, but not without some repercussions." But before he could go on, there was a knock at the door. Guntei got up and answered it.

"Number 42?" The waiter asked.

"That's us." Nazuno Said as he held up the plaque and tossed it to the waiter. The waiter deftly caught it and pocketed it.

"Here you go sir." He said as he handed Guntei the tray and left. Guntei slid the door close and set the tray on top of the one that had held our drinks. Nazuno passed me a stir-fry with a tall glass of water, Guntei a steak and bottle of BBQ sauce, Shinrai a tray of shish kebabs, and himself a basket of breaded chicken.

"B-But, how?" Shinrai asked. "How did you know I wanted shish kebabs?"

"Or that I wanted a stir-fry?" I asked

"Or that you wanted a steak?" Nazuno asked Guntei, who simply nodded, to busy drooling. "I just knew." He shrugged.

Shinrai started to argue, but I hopped in. "So what happened after you snapped back?"

"Well," Nazuno said as he tore a chunk out of his chicken, "I tried to hunt down Aizen, but Hueco Mundo is a big place, and he came and went as he pleased. So instead, I trained to concur my new Hollow powers."

"At which point," Guntei said as he finished a bite of heavy BBQed steak, "We wondered what had become of him. And one day, he showed up at Captain Kurotsuchi's front door and said he would like to be sheltered. Of course, the captain was intrigued by Nazuno."

"So he accepted." Shinrai said as he put down his shish kebab stick. "He's been a subject of study and lap dog since."

"Well, I say that's pretty damn impressive." I smiled. They all looked at me like I was crazy, even Nazuno. "I mean, let's say you turned into a full fledged Hollow Shinrai. Do you think _you_ be able to come out of it?"

"Well, no." He mumbled.

"In fact, out of the people here, I haven't fought you Nazuno."

"Is that a challenge?" He smiled.

"I believe it would be." I smiled back and took a deep drink from my glass of water. I then realized the stupid mistake I just made.

"Then I accept." Nazuno replied.

…

After we had finished our meal, Guntei had informed his squad that I had challenged Nazuno, and not three seconds later, one of them ran off to tell their captain to clear the arena. The four of us walked out with Guntei and Nazuno grinning, Shinrai fussing over me, and me groaning.

"I just did something _extremely_ stupid, didn't I?"

"I would say so." Shinrai confirmed.

"I wouldn't!" Guntei said, beaming. "In fact, you should be ecstatic! Captain Zaraki never caught up with Nazuno for a fight, so he was super peeved about it. But now he gets to see the fight he missed out on!" Guntei stopped grinning. "Or would that just piss the captain off more? Aw, who cares! This is going to be awesome!" This just made me groan more.

Before I knew it, the four of us showed up at the eleventh squad barrack. It was practically a fanfare with how many people showed up. "I thought this place would be deserted, compared to how the pub received him." I said to Shinrai.

"Are you kidding?' Nazuno said from my other side. I was actually getting used to his sudden appearance. "You might actually be the first guy I fight and _not_ kill." That didn't make me feel any better.

And my fight with Nazuno didn't seem to perk Kenpachi up either. Unlike last time, he was sitting and practically biting off the head of anyone who was coming within five feet of him. He saw us and just pointed to the open area. We went in and got ready. "Begin!" Kenpachi barked.

And like that, Nazuno was gone. I didn't have to wait long though, his foot connected with my head in no time. I hadn't even been able to predict where he had been coming from. The one thing I did notice before he disappeared again was that the metal wires seemed to be over both of his arms. I barely able to say "Split Shiyouso" before Nazuno started playing human pinball. But even then, his hits still hurt.

He was defiantly faster than I could hope to be in Shiyouso's air form, but he was to fast for me to disrupt him in the earthen form. I even tried to. I created multiple random stalagmites to disrupt him, but he went unhindered

"Damn, so this is the power of a Vizard, huh? There's no way I can out do him." I began thinking. "There's no possible way I can out right beat him."

_Then don't._ I heard Shiyouso say. But that made no sense. If I couldn't out run him or over power him, what else was there? Then a ingenious idea popped into my head, but it would be dangerous, and involve counting on Nazuno. On next kick to my side that sent me careening towards the ground, I threw Shiyouso at the ground so that it implanted itself and trapped me within a stone teepee.

I heard Nazuno land outside. "Nice stall, but what is it going to change?" And with that, I heard chipping come from the outside. Perfect, he was digging me out, just as planned. I released Shiyouso and thought how this was actually going to work. It popped into my head as Nazuno ripped two of the stalagmite walls away. "Got you." He said as he reared his right arm back.

"Do you?" I smirked. **"Splash, Shiyouso!"** And then the blade glowed an ocean blue. But instead of the guard lowering or rising, the triangular pieces turned down. And then shot his arm foreword.

I dodged him. I actually dodged him! Seven separate wires in a confined space, and I dodged all of them! I leapt out at Nazuno, who actually brought up his left arm to defend himself. I got around him and faced against him again. When he turned around, I could see how he could have been considered a monster. Both of his arms were covered in a mass of metal wires, most of which were sprawled over the ground. I then saw some of the tendrils tense and Nazuno was gone again.

"So that's how you do it!" I exclaimed as I tilted my head left so his tendrils missed. "You don't use only flash step, you use it in combination with those tentacles to propel yourself." I said as I stepped back a pace so that his punch was in front of me, which I took a hack at. Sure enough, his arm was buried deep in there. He was gone again. "But you still have the same problem."

Now he was standing in front of me, huffing and puffing. "You can't stop. You only stop after the hit. With no hit, you keep going until you stop yourself, excerpting more energy than hitting me would."

"Very good. You actually have made me to use my actual Shikai now." Nazuno puffed.

"Wait, you mean your not right now?" I asked bewildered.

"Nope, this is thanks to the Hollow rampage. I can bring out the form, but not the power." Nazuno grinned. "Tear the soul, Tetsutoge." And with that, the metal wires gained barbs. I cringed, those were wrapped around the entirety of his arm!

"Doesn't that hurt?" I asked concerned.

"A bit." He conceded. "But not as much as they're about to hurt you!" And as he said that, he launched a full frontal attack. No speed, no trickery, full on force. He started taking swings and stabs wildly. I only dodged them because of my newfound flexibility, but the barbs were still getting me. And the more scratches that I accumulated, the weaker I started feeling, and I couldn't place why.

Then I remembered all of the release phrases I've heard. Smash, the frozen walks, dance, and tear the soul. They all somehow related to what they did, a hammer, an ice mover, an ice dancer, and a soul ripper! The more he ripped from me, the more he _actually_ ripped from me. But where to?

I didn't have to wait long to find out. Suddenly, all of Nazuno's tendrils retracted to directly over his right forearm. I could also see that his left arm was a bloody mess, until I noticed that the tendrils started forming a metallic flower with more energy than I could have thought to be possible to construct in a second.

Then it hit me that that was where my energy had gone. To that one blast.

"Goodbye Sanju, it was nice knowing you." Nazuno said.


	14. Party

**A New Party:**

I prepared to try to deflect the energy blast, but before it went off, Shinrai and Guntei rushed in, both hitting Nazuno's arm up. The energy was shot straight up in one huge burst. I was really glad I didn't have to deal with that.

"Didn't you hear the captain!" Shinrai shouted at Nazuno. "He said you won! You didn't need to actually fire that!"

"You're right, I didn't." Nazuno said as released Tetsutoge and sheathed it. "But you two hit my arm, releasing the energy. I wasn't going to actually fire."

"Sure you weren't." Shinrai growled as he and Guntei sheathed their Zanpakto.

"So Sanju," Guntei said as he came over to me, "What's with your Zanpakto? I thought you had an earth type?"

"I would also like to know about that." Shinrai said as he finished glaring at Nazuno. "How can you do that? I even fought you and you used two different Shikai, and now here you have a third."

"Well, I don't quite know how to explain it, but whenever I feel like I can't win with how I'm fighting, Shiyouso seems to come up with a new solution." I laughed a little. "It's like I'm the main character in a manga. Whenever I look beat, I do something new to win." I sighed. "But Nazuno proved that wrong. I still have a lot to learn."

"Well, don't beat yourself up to much." Nazuno said. "I was a lieutenant once, and the Hollowfication only made me stronger. Come on, the crowd's already leaving, what do you three say about a four way spar? No Shikai's."

"I'm game for that." Guntei perked.

"Of course you are." Shinrai chuckled. "It wouldn't hurt to train a little."

"Yeah, seeing as we're all probably going to Hell soon." I commented. They all stared at me. "What?"

"Why would we be going to Hell? That's outside our jurisdiction, you should've learned that." Shinrai said.

"Besides, there's nothing wrong with it right now." Guntei said. It then hit me that the captain's were keeping this little dilemma under wraps. I face palmed on how stupid I had been. Of _course_ they would keep the matter of Hell confidential. I groaned, who knew how much an information leak like this would backlash.

"Well, are we doing this or not?" Nazuno asked, like none of what we had said mattered past his own wants. I looked up and smiled.

"Sure, why not? I don't think the eleventh squad would mind three extra people fighting."

…

It was near dusk when the four of us finally called it quits. Everyone else had already left the compound, but we had just kept going. We had spared as pairs, doubles, three-on-one, and free for all. Nazuno practically won every match he was a part of, even with only using a large knife. If I had to count, I probably would have died over 200 times from the three of them. I was proud of the one time I overtook Nazuno in a one-on-one, and only that one time.

Shinrai and Guntei really knew how to deal with each other, and they also knew how to work together. When Guntei, Shinrai, and I teamed against Nazuno, we actually had a chance of winning. When we all called it quits, I could hear a man clearing his throat from the side. I was actually surprised, I wasn't expecting anyone to actually be waiting for us to finish.

"Sanju, Guntei, Shinrai, and Nazuno. The Head Captain has asked to see the four of you." An older gentleman with a thin mustache and gray hair reported. The other three immediately straightened up, especially Nazuno. The man turned and left, and we followed after him.

"Why are you guys acting so scared?" I asked as we followed the man.

"We're not scared, it's just respect." Shinrai said.

"Speak for yourself, I'm scared out of my skin." Nazuno whispered.

"Why's that?" I asked, curious now.

"Because that's the lieutenant of squad one. He's directly under Head Captain Yamamoto." Guntei said.

"And this is the first time the Head Captain has even wanted to see me since I came back." Nazuno added. I could see what made them respect/fear this man. If he was anything like the Head Captain, then he sure had to be something. On the side, this being the fourth time I'd been fetched today, he was the highest one in rank. This had to have been important.

We came back to the same base that Captain Soi Fon had carted me off to in the first place, but instead of the long room, the lieutenant escorted us to an open sided room. I was long and had nothing but the desk the head captain was sitting behind and a few support pillars. We all lined up single file in front of the captain at attention. He seemed to have been doing nothing but waiting for us, because I saw no papers on his desk, nor had he been putting any away.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why you are here." The Head Captain started. "To be quite honest, I don't have a legitimate one." That shot confusion through all four of us. Why would we be called here for no reason? "Now, that doesn't mean I called you here for no reason, just not a legitimate one. The truth is, we can't sustain a connection to Hell." Now only Guntei and Shinrai were confused, Nazuno was catching on. "We are having increasing reports of souls with invisible chains around the human world. With what we have encountered before, we have come to the conclusion these are escaped souls from Hell." Guntei and Shinrai were both glaring at me now from the corners of their eyes.

"Since we cannot establish a stable link, we need an infiltration squad. One that can get in and get out without problems. Squad two may be well versed in speed and stealth, but not so much as in strength. And from reports of the fights with Denizens, no ordinary Soul Reaper can beat them. Even teams have a difficult time. So you four have been selected for this mission.

"Guntei Moritor and Shinrai Midoten, you are known as one of the greatest tag teams since the time of Captain Ukitake and Captain Kyoraku. Now, neither of you are as powerful as the captains, but that shouldn't be necessary.

"Nazuno, from recent reports, you've been having a harder and harder time controlling yourself. You are here as an outlet for that pent up energy. Do not expect this as a break. Vizards are just as capable as normal Soul Reapers. Prove this.

"And you Sanju, are to lead them." Was all Head Captain Yamamoto said to me. This immediately made all four of us break formalities with a loud "WHAT?" But it seemed the captain had been expecting this reaction. When we all finally settled down, Shinrai pronounced his concern.

"Why Sanju of the four of us? Of us, I am the one of highest rank, not counting Nazuno's position. If one of us were to fall, Sanju wouldn't have somewhere to report to." He pointed out. It was all very well and good; I had no experience in leadership or the chain of command. If any of the three of them were left behind, I wouldn't know who to tell.

"But out of the four of you, who do you all mutually trust the most?" Captain Yamamoto asked. That made Shinrai stop and think, in fact it made us all think. "If you were to have Nazuno or Guntei as leader, would very well follow them? Or if any of you would be left behind, who would be the first to help?"

"Why do you assume that would be me sir?" I asked, completely confused. He had said it himself; Guntei and Shinrai knew each other and trusted one another more then either Nazuno or myself. But to my question, I saw the captain give me a small smile.

"I tested you myself. You have what it takes to be a leader. Or do you not remember after passing out?"

"_That's_ what that was? You made me pass out to see if I was a suitable _leader?_ That has got to be one of the craziest things I have ever heard!" I started to yell. I was angry; all of this was insanely stupid. The other three looked at me like I was mad, but the Head Captain merely chuckled.

"And that is exactly why. You question what is to be done, but stick to your answer. Even when I pressured you, you were determined to do as I had asked. Now I ask directly, will you lead this party?" Captain Yamamoto asked sincerely.

"I will, but only after you answer one question." I replied.

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"Why did you make it so that I knew these three?" I asked sincerely. And the captain did something that surprised all of us, he out right laughed.

"I didn't, that was all coincidence." He said. "Now, you all need to go to an old friend."


	15. Foe

**A New Foe:**

"Why, just why did he have to send me back here?" I wondered out loud to myself.

"I don't know why you're complaining." Nazuno said. "He is quite brilliant. He makes what others need even when they don't know they need it."

"You know that's part of the reason he's here right?" Shinrai said.

"I just want to see how strong he is." Guntei stated.

"Why hello everyone!" Urahara said flamboyantly. The four of us had just stepped out of what I learned to be called the senkaimon. Captain Yamamoto hadn't told us where it lead to, just merely stating that I'll know where I was when I got there. And here we were greeted by old hat-and-clogs (I liked Ichigo's nickname for him). Sometimes, I wished that I could have been straight to Hell than having to stop here.

"So why are we here?" I asked out loud.

"Well, a straight answer is just so boring, now isn't it?" Urahara said. I kind of wished he had kept up his streak from before I had left. "So instead, let's start with what you learned while on your expedition shall we?" He grinned, and I was already spinning 180 with blade in defense.

A dark skinned woman in an orange vest and skintight black tights was ax kicking me. Shinrai, Guntei, and Nazuno had all jumped to the side as a shockwave came from the connecting hit.

"And who the hell are you?" I asked as I was gritting my teeth. It took near all of my effort to keep this woman off of me.

"Ah, don't you recognize your mentor?" She falsely pouted as she kept up the ax kick to propel herself up and disappeared. I then felt a solid kick to my back. I didn't bother looking, because she would probably already be gone. From my short time in the Soul Society, my battle with Nazuno had taught me that there were people much faster than I could hope to keep up with or even hope to block. The same fight also reminded me of what I had just gained. And now seemed as good as ever to test it.

"Splash, Shiyouso." I said, and the blade once more turned ocean blue and the triangle extensions turned down. I closed my eyes and turned to my right. I felt a slight breeze go past my shoulder, signaling that my assailant had attacked. But unlike Nazuno, I also felt the breeze move away, she could move freely even after a failed attack.

I kept this up, eyes closed, dodging the woman's every attack, but not leaving an opening for a strike. My own impatience finally got the better of me and I took a horizontal slash in front of me after I had avoided the seventh ax kick.

"Ow." I heard the woman comment. I know I hadn't hit her at all, I hadn't felt the slightest bit of resistance. I opened my eyes to see two peculiar sights. One was the woman kneeling in front of me with a small cut bleeding on her cheek; the other was a small orb of water hovering at the tip of my sword.

"I'm impressed." The woman said as she stood up. "How did you do that?" She asked as she nodded at my blade.

"How _did_ I do that?" I asked out loud as I held the tip of the blade a few inches away so I could examine it. Suddenly, the same impulse to dodge hit me and I bent to my left as a hand with a gold claw on the middle finger flew by.

"How dare you do that to my Yoruichi!" Soi Fon exclaimed as she tuned to face me, directly between the woman and myself. Why is she here? Only the four of us had entered the senkaimon. Wait, did she say Yoruichi?

"I'm confused on so many levels right now." I said defeatedly.

"You and everyone else." Nazuno said as he and the other two came up beside me.

"Captain Soi Fon, what are you doing here? I thought only the four of us were going on this assignment." Shinrai said.

"What assignment?" Soi Fon asked, still poised to strike. I facepalmed.

"Alright, just answer why you're here then." I said from behind my hand.

"I heard word from my men that you were leaving for the human world, and the logical thing was you only had one place to arrive. The moment I learned this, I come dashing and find you fighting my precious Yoruichi." She stated.

"Now now Soi Fon, I think you're pushing that a bit far. I'm the one who started the brawl in the first place." The woman said as she patted Soi Fon on the head. I sucked in my breath, waiting for that arm not to exist anymore. But instead, the gold implement reverted back into a short sword in which Captain Soi Fon slipped behind her back.

"If you say so Madame Yoruichi." Soi Fon said politely. I let out my breath and looked around me to see the other three's jaws dropped.

"If you wouldn't mind, I'm still confused." I said again.

"Agreed." I heard all three of my companions say in unison.

"I believe I should explain." Urahara said as he walked over.

"Oh, now you want to explain." I said as I rolled my eyes.

"Let's start with Soi Fon and Yoruichi." He said as he walked over to the two as though he hadn't heard me. "Sanju, she was the cat that trained you on how to use Shiyouso in its wind form." Urahara said as he placed a hand on Yoruichi's shoulder.

"How in the world did she become a cat and sound like a man?" I asked even more confused.

"That's a secret, but I will say it took a lot of practice." Yoruichi said. I just decided to drop the subject.

"As for Soi Fon, she was under Yoruichi when she was the captain of the second division." Urahara continued.

"That still doesn't explain the complete obedience." I mumbled.

"I have, and always will, serve Madame Yoruichi, Sanju." Soi Fon clearly and directly at me. Note to self: do not say anything out loud around her, ever, unless it was meant to be heard.

"Any other questions?" Urahara asked with his stupid little smile.

"Yeah, what did I do to get this?" I asked as I held up Shiyouso, the orb of water still hovering at the tip of the blade.

"I'm the one how can answer that the best." Yoruichi said. "You were doing well, dodging me with every move without the slightest effort. When you finally attacked, I dodged easily enough, but I felt a slight ripping following your swing, and as it turned out, you were making me work up quite a sweat. And that's what's right there." She nodded at the water.

I was a bit shocked, and that let the water fall onto the dirt of Urahara's 'basement'. "So my newest form controls water huh?" I wondered aloud as I released Shiyouso and sheathed him.

"Wonder if that includes ice." Shinrai wondered as well.

"Well this has all been nice and all, but will you mind also explaining why we're here in the first place?" Nazuno said impatiently. "We know that Hell's gate isn't stable, but I'm more than sure Captain Mayuri could open the gate."

"But the gate itself isn't all that discreet, now is it?" Urahara gave a knowing leer to Nazuno. "So instead, we're sending you through here."

"Now wait a second." Soi Fon stepped in. "Hell is in a classified state right now, if there is something being kept from me, I am to know." She said as she glared at Shinrai, Guntei and I in turn. For some reason she never quite met Nazuno's eye.

"Well then, here's what I know." I said as I stepped foreword to look down on her. At that moment, I didn't know if that was smart or not, but I was doing it. "Head Captain Yamamoto has assigned the four of us to infiltrate Hell to see what's going on. All of us have been briefed and we all know the consequences. Does that satisfy your demand?"

Soi Fon simply smirked up at me. "Plenty. But do me one favor." She said as she grabbed my collar and pulled me down so her head was next to mine. "Bring them all back in one piece." And with that, she let me go. I smiled back.

"Will do captain." And with that, I stood up and turned, I decided to try and get a few whacks in on Urahara for putting me through all of this for an overly contrived answer. Unfortunately for me, Rukia had to show up, and she looked badly wounded.

"Rukia!" I shouted to get people's attention as I dashed over to her. She was barely standing and was clutching one arm. "What the hell do you think you're doing down here? Tessai should have put you to rest immediately. What are you doing down-" I was cut off as I felt Nazuno's wires wrap around me and pull me back. Guntei who seemed rather preoccupied glaring at Rukia caught me. I looked back and saw that she had her sword out where I had just been.

"Aw, did you have to save him?" I heard a taunting voice call from the opening in the ceiling where the store should be protected. A woman dressed in a tight fitting purple dress hopped down and landed without a problem. A Soul Reaper who had a giant brown afro, who also looked badly beaten like Rukia, followed after her. "I really need new toys, these ones are to broken to be of any fun any more."

"And who the hell are you!" I shouted. From the drawn look from Urahara, he didn't know her, so defiantly didn't set this one up.

"Well, the name I had here was Annalisa, but I liked my news name better, The Puppeteer Killer. Even better, I was known by Hollow's as Mingoros. Any of them are fine to use, it's not like any of you will care for much longer." She finished as she lifted her left hand, I could here the soft clinking of chains, and Rukia raised her Zanpakto into the ready position. Everyone became on guard, and we all waited.

But it seemed like our opponent had other ideas. She flung her right arm foreword and shouted, "Do it!" The afro Soul Reaper shouted "Good Morning Tscuhinamazu!" and slammed a steel ring into the ground and ran at us as he dragged it through the ground. At first I was confused by how idiotic this all was, but then I started seeing bright red energy start coming out from the line the Soul Reaper was carving, and it was spreading. Everyone present jumped as far away from the three as they could, because the entire area leading up to the spot we were just standing on broke into a pit of jagged rocks. The only places unaffected was were the three of them were standing currently.

"Wait a second, I know that guy!" Guntei called out. "That's Zennosuke from the academy! He could never do this though. He had to be stationary to even break up a twenty-foot radius. He couldn't possibly run _and_ do this much damage."

"You think not?" Annalisa called out. "Then how about her?" I looked, but Rukia wasn't anywhere to be seen. So this guy had only been a distraction! I looked around for her, but she was gone.

"Nazuno, behind you!" Shinrai called out. I whipped around to see Nazuno's metal wires wrapped around and holding off Rukia's Zanpakto. She looked emotionless, but Nazuno was obviously struggling to keep her off of himself.

"Sanju, look out!" Guntei called. I looked over my shoulder to see Zennosuke charging at me, blade at the ready. Before I could turn all the way around, Yoruichi and Soi Fon had grabbed each of his arms and tossed him aside.

"You're already failing Sanju!" Soi Fon called out warningly, but I could see a self satisfied smirk.

"Oh no you don't." I heard Urahara say. I looked back to see Nazuno still holding off Rukia, but she now had another sword in hand ready to strike. The only reason it wasn't was because Urahara was keeping it down with his cane. "Now be reasonable." Urahara started, but Rukia turned the blade and slid it up his cane. Urahara batted it away, which gave Nazuno enough time to toss her aside.

"How can she still be that strong being beaten up like that?" He huffed as he got ready for her. I finally tore my attention away to pay attention to the real problem.

"Shinrai, Guntei! Let's stop being spectators and actually join the fun!" I shouted as I drew Shiyouso. I briefly saw them do the same, and we all headed over toward the Denizen.


	16. Discovery

**A New Discovery:**

The three of us met up at the Denizen at the same time, all of us swinging from a different direction. I came from the front, Guntei to my left, Shinrai to the right. Yet somehow, even with her back to the sky-blue wall, all three of us missed. She didn't even move; it was like all three of us had decided to miss.

We all then simultaneously jumped back. "Ah, what's wrong? I'm just a harmless little girl." Mingoros said with a sickeningly cutesy smile.

"Yeah, 'harmless' enough to go to Hell." Shinrai spat.

"Now that's not something to say to a lady. You should really apologize." She said with the same creepy grin. "By being my new toy!" She said, as she seemed to materialize a silver chain that shot at Shinrai. He tried to knock it aside, but instead of following the force of the blow, the chain wrapped around the blade. Mingoros grabbed a hold on the chain and started pulling. Shinrai was doing everything he could to hold onto his sword.

"Don't forget there's more than one of us!" Guntei shouted as he took a horizontal swing at Mingoros. She easily caught the blade in her hand.

"Well of course! I never neglect any new toy's!" She smiled, and Guntei smiled back.

"Jokes on you. Now Sanju!" As he shouted, she looked around to see where I was coming from, but I was still standing where I had jumped.

"Aw, it doesn't look like he's going to help. To bad for y-" She got cut off by a pillar of stone jutting out from under her, smashing square into her jaw. She let go of both Guntei's Zanpakto and the chain that was holding Shinrai's. Mingoros was knocked back into the wall, and left only a small hole in it.

I was slightly impressed with myself. I had seen plenty of my missed attacks and myself smack into that wall with varying degrees of power. None of them ever left a single scratch. Now I was able to hit someone into breaking it.

The three of us backed up a bit further as Mingoros half fell, half walked out of the hole in the wall. "How the hell did you do that?" She complained as she massaged her jaw. "I'm very delicate you know."

"Bull shit!" All three of us shouted at once, making her wince in surprise. I took this quick second to evaluate what she could do. Right now, she can catch a blade bare handed, so she either has reinforced skin, or something to stop it. She can produce chains out of nowhere that seem to bend to her will. And she can control people. In all, not looking good for us. She is both long and short ranged, and I'm the only one with a released Zanpakto.

"Well, if none of you _want_ to be my toys, then I guess I'll just have to break you myself!" She shouted, as two bronze chains seemed to fall from her wrists. They clattered on the ground for a split second before she spun and the chains picked up on the momentum and flung themselves at us. We all jumped to avoid the swing, but Guntei was a second slow, and one of the chains bashed into his right leg with a sickening crack. He yelled out in pain as he went sailing.

"Being in the air doesn't help!" Mingoros called as she kept spinning. She gradually raised her arms, the chains following. And was only a second until Shinrai and I descended into their path. I might be all right with Shiyouso's protection, but I didn't want to try it. So, there was only one thing left to do.

Go into the eye of the storm.

Shinrai seemed to have the same idea, because one short jump later, we were both face to face, and directly above Mingoros.

"Do you two really think that will help?" I heard her call from below.

"Maybe." I said. I motioned that on the count of three to go up. Shinrai gave me a short nod. The chains were getting closer and closer, and on three, Shinrai and I both blasted the concentrated Reiatsu and leaped higher. I had come to the conclusion that she could probably extend the use of her chains, but the short time we gave her allowed us to get away.

When she realized we had gone further up, it was to late. The force of her swing kept her going even after she tried to stop. The two chains collided and continued to wrap around each other until they reached Mingoros. It twisted her arms together and threw herself off balance. When she fell, the chains also came crashing down.

"Damn it all!" She swore. "Do you have _any_ idea how long it's going to take to undo theses? They were hard enough to get, never mind control." She grunted as she stood up, arms still crossed in front of her.

"So, wait, those aren't yours either?" Shinrai asked.

"What?" She asked, like she just noticed we were standing not ten yards away. "Well, of course they are, how else would I control them?"

"Lady, there is a difference between owning and stealing. And from what I can see, all you do is steal." I said.

"Oh come now." She smiled. "Of course they're mine. It's not like their original owner is alive or anything."

"There is just something wrong with you." I sighed. "Your soul really does need cleaning. You really need to go back to Hell." With that, I gripped Shiyouso tighter.

"Go right ahead." Mingoros taunted. "We know of your last little exploit, and we know what those little blabbermouths told you. I know you know I'll just go straight back to Hell if you kill me."

"Really?" I asked with a grin, and Mingoros paled. "I didn't know that." I ran at her with Shiyouso lowered for an upper slash, hoping to take advantage of her twisted arms.

"I might be a bit tied up," She taunted, "But I can still _move_!" She yelled as she raised her arms to swing the twisted chain.

"Did you forget this isn't one on one!" Guntei yelled, Hanmaa in hand. I could see that his right leg was flying behind him, useless. But he was flying at the two of us nonetheless. He swung at her legs, but he missed for the second time. But Guntei was expecting this, because in the middle of the swing, I already saw the hammer's head moving to the other end. He rammed it into Mingoros's right leg yelling, "How do _you _likeit?"

She started to fall again, and this time, my sword was ready for the uptake. I was ready to behead her when...

She was gone. Just, gone. The bronze chains were still lying next to me, but Mingoros was gone.

"Damn it Teruchi, I had them!" I heard her yell from behind me. I twisted to see not only her, but also a man in an open black vest and black shorts standing next to her. He was bald, but he had this strange grin that didn't want to go away. I took that this was Teruchi.

"Now Annalisa, you do remember how vital you are to seeing this through right?" Teruchi said in an annoying high voice that just screamed crazy. "We can't just have you going back to being a cowering peon, now can we?"

"But I wanted new toys to play with!" Mingoros pouted.

"And if you took better care in retrieving them, you wouldn't have to get so many." Teruchi sighed. "But playtime's over, boss says to head home."

"But it's only been an hour. I was promised six."

"That was before they started acting up."

"Again? I could have sworn I _just_ put them down."

"It doesn't seem like they're as easily broken as these ones." Teruchi said as he eyed Guntei's leg.

"Fine, let's go. But don't forget my new toys." Mingoros said.

"I wouldn't _dream_ of it." He said, putting a hand over his heart. "I will never forget to pick up after you." And with that, a giant mouth smacked itself open and ate the two.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, completely confused by what had just gone on.

"Um, you might want to _move first!_" Shinrai shouted. I moved away from everyone instinctively and turned to face what I was running from.

The same mouth that had eaten the pair of Denizens was now a lot bigger and hovering over the discarded chains. It descended slowly and ate the entire length of metal. When it was done, it was gone.

"I reiterate, what the _hell_ was that?" I shouted.

"So there you three are!" I heard Urahara call out. "I never thought this place was big enough to lose sight of each other, But sometimes I even amaze myself- and what happened here?" He asked as He, Soi Fon, Nazuno, and Yoruichi showed up.

I examined the scene. There wasn't much to say. There was the hole in the wall, a few flat top rocks, and a giant crater in the ground from where the mouth had eaten.

"Before that, where's Rukia and that other guy?" I asked.

Nazuno just took a breather. "We were fighting her off when a mouth just popped up and ate her."

"Strange, the same thing happened while we were fighting Zennosuke." Yoruichi said, rubbing her chin. "But he didn't seem to have a teleportation ability."

"He doesn't." Shinrai said as he walked up, supporting Guntei. "Another Denizen showed up and took her away. He also took away her weapon she was using."

"What was she using?" Soi Fon asked.

"I have no idea. But," He said as he tossed something at Urahara. "It was able to break off a piece. If your as great as they say you are, I'm sure you can figure it out sir."

Urahara caught the piece and examined it. "I think I've seen this before, but that's just ridiculous. They shouldn't be able to lose this."

"Whoever it is, they didn't lose it, that girl stole it." I said.

"How can you tell that?" Yoruichi asked.

"She admitted to it." I shrugged.

"That shouldn't be right either, but let me take a thorough look at it. While I do that, can all of you check on my store and see what came of Tessai and the kids?"

Guntei, Yoruichi, and Soi Fon stayed 'downstairs' to patch Guntei up, while Urahara headed off into the distance. I didn't know what was there, and I'm pretty sure I didn't want to. But this left Shinrai, Nazuno, and myself to go investigate.

Thankfully, we didn't find too much damage. Inside at least, outside the storefront was a completely different matter. There were nicks and craters all over the ground and neighboring buildings. Among those craters were Tessai, Jinta, and Ururu. I went for Ururu, Nazuno went for Tessai, and Shinrai went to go check on Jinta.

As I got to Ururu, I saw a weird tube wrapped in cloth, but one end was protruding multiple tubes. And they appeared to be smoking, so whatever it was, it was still hot, so this just happened, the Denizen hadn't been loitering. I check Ururu for a pulse, and I felt one, though week and erratic.

"Ok, let's see if I learned anything from Hanataro." I muttered as I placed both my hands slightly above Ururu's chest. A soft green light started to glow, and I felt my spirit start to comingle with Ururu's. After a few seconds, I stopped and took a breather. Healing was exhausting work, and I now had a new respect for the fourth division.

As I went back to do a bit more stabilization, Ururu's hand flung up and griped my wrist, hard as a vice. I winced from the pain, but I was soon face to face with her as she grabbed my throat. I could see right into her eyes, and they looked as if she were running on autopilot.

"Ururu, it's me, Sanju!" I wheezed before her grip became to strong. This seemed to rouse her out of her semi conscious state.

"Sanju? Where have I heard that before?" She asked, still a bit delirious, but soon collapsed, losing her grip on me. I took a few deep breaths and moved back a foot or two. She wasn't moving, but I wasn't going to take another chance.

"Having a problem?" Nazuno asked from behind me. I turned to an even bigger shock. Nazuno wasn't a short guy, but seeing him carry Tessai over one shoulder seemed a bit much for me.

"A bit, seems Ururu here is still in some sort of autopilot mode for fighting. I woke her up and she reacted immediately by going for my throat." I said as I rubbed the bruise for emphasis.

"Ouch, I know how that feels. Happened quite a bit to me in the past. One good thing though, trains your throat. I have a great tenor voice now." He smiled.

"Oh ha ha ha, let's just get these three inside shall we?" Shinrai said as he was carrying Jinta on his back.

"Sure, I know where we can set them down." I said as I gingerly picked up Ururu. Nazuno opened the door and I led them into the room where I had been kept while I was unconscious for three days. We found some bedding in the next room and set them up for a more comfortable rest.

"So, do you guys honestly think she did this to them all on her own?" I asked.

"Are you kidding?" Shinrai asked seriously. "It took you, me, and Guntei just to off set her, I doubt one skilled man and two children could hold her off."

"Never mind if she had those other two helping her do the dirty work." Nazuno sighed. "Urahara and I had a hard time attacking between being hesitant to attack and being attacked. These three actually know those two, I doubt there was an actual fight."

"Then what would you call all of those craters?" I asked.

"Light tosses." Nazuno said seriously. "Never underestimate a high class Hollow's power. Even in my delirium of power, there were still Hollow's I wanted to avoid. And it looks like those are the only ones in Hell."

"So what have I been fighting around here?" I said exasperated. "The Hollow's I've fought weren't that easy to take on in the first place."

After a round of silence, Nazuno spoke again. "From what I can tell, you've been fighting things about an eighth of the strength of that woman."

"And you can tell that from sitting here?" Shinrai asked.

"Hey, when you want to know what to avoid, you get damn good at telling your surroundings." Nazuno said. With the raising voices, I think we started to wake Tessai up, because he was stirring.

"What happened?" He grumbled, but then sat bolt upright. "Where's Rukia, she has some questions to answer."

"Lie back down Tessai." I said as I forced him to lie back down. "Rukia did nothing of her own accord. One of the Denizens has some sort of controlling ability."

"If that's the case, we need to find her then." Tessai said as he sat back up again. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

"Then can you take care of Jinta and Ururu then?" Shinrai asked. "We have a meeting to get to."

Tessai looked to his right and saw the unconscious forms of Jinta and Ururu. "Very well then." He said as he got up.

"Thanks Tessai, I'm sure Urahara will fill you in." I said as Shinrai, Nazuno, and I started to leave to go back 'downstairs'.

"He better." I heard him growl as he twisted one of the towels he had just soaked a bit to tightly.


	17. Alliance

**A New Alliance:**

The three of us head back down into the basement to find an impromptu lab setup with Urahara moving from one table to the next. Guntei, Soi Fon, and Yoruichi were off to one side, bandaging up Guntei's leg. I noticed how none of them were trying healing, so it must have been a pretty bad break.

"So what's the verdict on what Shinrai found?" I asked Yoruichi, as we got close enough.

"He still isn't done." She sighed. "He's double checked his findings at least three times now, and he can't come to accept it. He's trying to desperately prove that what he has isn't what it is."

"And what does he have?" Nazuno asked.

"One of the Guardians chains." Soi Fon said.

"A Guardian of what?" I asked.

"A Guardian of Hell." Urahara said somberly as he came over. "I can't come up with anything else it could possibly be."

"So you're saying that's a tool to keep people like Mingoros _in_ Hell?" I asked, trying not to believe what I was hearing. "But if that's true, what is keeping them in check?"

"I don't know, but this gives us one solid piece of evidence. If someone in Hell is able to defeat or even tame the Guardians, they could easily lead a revolt against the rest of humanity."

"Well, at least we know that's going to take some time." Shinrai said. "When the second Denizen came in to retrieve the girl, he said something about 'them' acting up. She was also bragging about who she had taken the chains from weren't technically alive."

"And I think she's one of the main players keeping them subdued." Guntei added. "If she weren't, the second guy wouldn't have been concerned that she became submissive again."

"Again?" I asked.

"Whenever a Denizen or any soul dies in Hell, they get regenerated some time later." Nazuno explained. "But when that happens, if it was a loose soul, they get bound to Hell, and their will gets broken. Most rebellious ones are the ones that just ended up there."

"And how do you know all of this exactly?" Soi Fon asked, eyeing Nazuno.

"Captain, I'm allowed to roam freely through the squad twelve barracks, I have lieutenant security access, and I get bored easily. I've practically read through all of the reports on Hell." Nazuno said seriously. "Trust me, someone knowing this is more helpful then being kept in the dark."

"He has a point Soi Fon." Yoruichi said. "It makes the team more aware of what their mission is."

"And what exactly is our mission?" I asked. I had been meaning to ask this for a while. All I knew was that I had brought up an issue with Hell, and now I was the head of a small invasion group.

"Well, now that we have solid evidence, we can actually give you an objective." Urahara said. "Initially, we were just going to send you in to investigate, but now we need to know what the Denizens are doing with the Guardians."

"Simple, isn't it?" Guntei chuckled. That brought me to another point.

"How urgent is this?" Everyone just looked at me.

"How important?" Soi Fon asked. "How important? We have souls of the damned controlling Hell, and you ask how important it is? I'll tell you how important it is, it's as important as getting your head out of your-" Yoruichi cut Soi Fon off with a hand over her mouth.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because it would be reckless to go in there knowing absolutely nothing about Hell. And I'm sure Nazuno, Shinrai, and I should go in and leave Guntei behind with a broken leg. If what Nazuno estimates is right, then I'm barely qualified to be on a team to fight a Denizen. When three of us tried to take on one, one of us got crippled. And if this were Hell, we would have to retreat. Right now, I say we're nowhere near close enough to go there." I reasoned.

"You do realize, the longer we wait, the longer they have to prepare and attack. They already know where we're based, and they have at least one that can travel back and forth at will." Yoruichi ticked off. "If you want to put this off, you have to give us all a reason why."

"The truth is, is that we need to work on how to work together." I said simply. "We did a little bit back in the Soul Society, but that had us pitting against each other. We need training on how to fight as an actual group."

Urahara and Yoruichi seemed to delegate on this point by themselves. Finally, Urahara sighed. "You have a point Sanju. The reason the four of you were selected was so that you could be an effective group against the problems from Hell, and we're contradicting ourselves if we only let three of you go. But Guntei isn't in any shape to walk, much less spar."

"What about healing?" Shinrai asked. "Surely it's not bad enough that it will never heal."

"Well," Urahara seemed dissatisfied. "The entire point of the Guardians is to break the condemned Denizens, both physically and mentally. It can be fixed, but it would take one of the higher ranks from the fourth division to make any sort of noticeable difference in a short time."

"What do we have to work with here in the real world?" Nazuno asked. "I'm sure you wouldn't be here with no sort of treatment center."

Urahara thought on it. And then Yoruichi face palmed. "Kisuke, there's always the others. Orihime could easily fix this up."

"Hm, I guess you're right." Urahara said. "What time is it anyway?"

"Uh, when we were coming down here, I think the clock said 2:30 or something." I said, thinking back. "So I guess school would be out about now."

"Perfect." Urahara smiled. "So go and get her as I do a few more tests on the fragment."

"Actually Urahara, I think Tessai wants an explanation." I informed Urahara. "And I don't think he wanted to be kept waiting."

"Ah, right, he probably doesn't." Urahara said as he quickly headed for the ladder that led to the shop.

Nazuno, Shinrai, and I started to follow when Guntei stopped us. "And what am I supposed to do while I sit here as a cripple? Shinrai, you know I don't like the side lines."

"Well don't feel to bad Guntei." Nazuno said. "You have two lovely ladies to look after you and berate you while we go." I tried to glare at the man, but he was already gone. I noticed why after the pressure of Yoruichi and Soi Fon's glares fully hit. Shinrai and I beat a hasty retreat after the offender.

…

"So, where are we heading again?" Shinrai asked.

"Well, if I remember correctly, I think I saw Orihime living in one of these apartment houses." I said. The three of us were currently walking down the streets that had a majority of housing complexes, and they all looked alike.

"Well that's nice to know, but which one?" Nazuno asked. "How do you all tell these places apart?"

"You're one to ask." I said. "All of the Soul Society looks the same to me."

"They are broken up for each squad." Shinrai said.

"To all be exactly alike." I pointed out.

"Well not exactly alike." Shinrai stressed. "They do have their own unique buildings."

"And good luck finding them." Nazuno said. "But hey, having something there is better than mile after mile of a wasteland of sand."

"I think Nazuno wins." I said.

"Agreed. Sand gets boring after just a beach full of it." Shinrai admitted.

"Are we even paying attention to which house it is anymore?" Nazuno asked. He was right; we had passed at least six different complexes now and hadn't bothered to check any of them.

"Aw crap, we have to turn around." I sighed. But as I did, I noticed Ichigo walking by the next corner.

"Hey, isn't that?" Shinrai asked.

"Yeah it is, come on. I'm sure he'll know." I said as I started to walk over to Ichigo. "Hey Ichigo!" I called out, but he didn't seem to hear me. "Ichigo, wait up!" I said as I started to run after him, and he just wasn't stopping.

"Ichigo, what's up man? I need your help." I said as I finally caught up and put my hand on his shoulder. He just kept on walking. "Hey!" I said, gripping tighter. Finally, Ichigo stopped.

"Man, it is him." Shinrai said as he caught up. "I never actually thought I'd get to meet him."

"And you aren't." Nazuno said as he walked up.

"What are you talking about? He's right here." I said as I let go of Ichigo's shoulder. He shrugged and kept walking.

"Hey, wait!" I said as I grabbed his shirt. Ichigo stopped again and looked at us.

"I don't know who you are, but can please stop bothering me? I can't help anyone anymore, powers are all gone." I let go of him out of shock more than him asking. He kept on walking and I didn't try to catch him again.

"Why doesn't he have his powers anymore? In fact, how can you lose Soul Reaper powers?" Shinrai asked.

"I don't know. I knew he said he was losing them, but this is a bit fast. He still had them a few weeks ago." I said.

"His powers are closed." Nazuno said. "He broke his power open and became it. As he did that, all of his powers burst open at one time, consuming itself like a bonfire. I'm sure if he wasn't a human, he would have ceased existing."

I just sighed. "Well, there goes that option then."

"Maybe not." Nazuno said. "Ichigo still had quite a few unique Spirit traces on him. I'm sure I can tack them."

"Why couldn't you do that in the first place?" Shinrai asked.

"Have you tried finding a specific human here?" Nazuno asked. "If you can, then I applaud you good sir. Now come on, one of them is close." He said as He jumped off. Shinrai just shrugged and jumped after him, with me close behind.

As we were in the air, Nazuno looked around a bit and found what he was looking for. Unfortunately, it wasn't who we were expecting. But at least he could help. We descended and landed in front of him.

"Hey Chad." I waved. "Long time no see."

"Sanju?" He asked.

"Yep, that's me. Um, the three of us are looking for Orihime, do you know where she is by chance?"

"Why?"

"One of our guys has a badly broken leg and we were seeing if she could help."

"Ok. She should be at her house right now." He said as he pointed east.

"Thanks Chad. Nazuno, can you find her?"

"Yep, one of them is over there now. The last one seems to be to the south, so there shouldn't be any confusion." Nazuno confirmed.

"Great, let's go then." Shinrai said as he and Nazuno leapt away. Before I could, Chad grabbed me by the shoulder.

"What's this about? Tessai should be able to heal a leg." He said in his deep monotone. I just took a deep breath in thought.

"Head over to Urahara's, and you'll get the picture fast. Right now, I need to go." I said as I eyed Nazuno and Shinrai waiting.

"I don't trust that Black haired one." Chad said simply.

"Nazuno? He's fine, we can trust him." I consoled, trying to get going.

"I'll be there to confirm that for myself." Chad said in finality as he let go of me.

"You're worrying over nothing." I said and jumped after the two.

"What was that?" Nazuno asked.

"Chad was just being a good friend, that's all. He'll be meeting us at Urahara's."

"Why?" Shinrai asked. "We're the one's doing the work here."

"Don't question it. He just does what he does. Now let's get moving." I said as I looked to Nazuno.

"Right this way." He said and jumped. Two minutes later, we were at a very different apartment complex than I remembered.

"All right, so maybe she moved. I was never all that interactive with her, all right?" I said as the other two eyed me in doubt. "So, which one?" I asked as I looked over the four-story apartment building.

"Eh, from what I can tell, second story, two from the end." Nazuno said hesitantly. "There are a lot of people here to pick her out of."

"Or we can just check her name plaque." Shinrai pointed to the plaque that said 'Orihime Inoue'.

"Well, if you want to take the easy way." Nazuno grumbled. "But we're spirits, it's not like we can knock on her door."

"Why not?" I asked as I jumped to the second floor and knocked on the appropriate door with a solid rapping. "Seems fine to me." I called down.

"What seems fine to who?" I heard Orihime ask from behind me. She then gasped. "What do Soul Reapers want with me?"

"Whoa, whoa, Orihime, it's me, Sanju, remember? Ichigo introduced me as a guy he gave his powers to?" I tried to settle the panicking girl. It seemed to work, because she went from panic to deep thought.

"Mmm…Oh! Right, Sanju, what do you need?" She asked with a perky smile. The sudden flip of emotions threw me for a moment.

"Um, I need you to come back with us to help patch up one of my guys from a fight." I said as I motioned to Urahara's.

"Oh dear. All right, just give me a second." And with that, Orihime closed the door.

"Smooth man." Nazuno said as he leaned on my shoulder. "I liked the casual slip of leadership you put in there."

"Oh come off it. I just wanted her to come with us as fast as possible." I said as I brushed him off.

"Sure, whatever. I'm just saying I can't blame you for making a move."

"It's not like that!" I said as I spun to face him, but he was gone.

"What's not like what?" Orihime asked as she came out and locked her door.

"It's nothing, just one of the guys poking fun at me." I sighed.

"One? How many of you are there?" She asked wearily.

"Four in total, three here, including me." I said as I took the stairs down with her. As we got out onto the street, I could see both Nazuno and Shinrai smirking. "What?" I asked.

"Nothing, nothing. Just don't let power go to your head." Shinrai said, trying to keep a straight face. It didn't work, because I saw his lips twitching. I just sighed in aggravation.

"All right you two, cut it out. We have business to take care of. Um, Orihime, how long would it take to get from here to Urahara's?"

"Um, about twenty minutes at least, why?"

"Because I didn't want to have to ask this, but Guntei is probably suffering more than a broken leg right now." I grimaced at the thought of having to spend time alone in Urahara's, unable to move. "So, Nazuno, can you do the same thing you did for me? I think it would just be easier if we flash stepped back."

"Ok, you're the boss." Nazuno said as he drew Tetsutoge. The wires soon spread over his right arm and flowed down with no end. By the time he was done, he had a giant bowl made from the wires. "Like this, my spirit will cover her presence, making her invisible to the untrained eye. This is what you meant, _right?_"

"Sure, yes, let's just go." I said impatiently.

"Um, is that safe?" Orihime asked.

"Completely." Nazuno assured her.

"All right then." She said as she stepped in and the bowl closed into a full sphere. "Hopefully." He added, and jumped off.

Two minutes later, we were back at the storefront. Nazuno laid the sphere down gently and undid the wires to reveal a dizzy looking Orihime.

"W-Well, it was s-safe, to say t-the least." She said as she stumbled around a bit.

"Geez Nazuno, how much did you shake her up?" Shinrai asked.

"I didn't, I swear! I kept it as stable as I could." Nazuno defended himself.

"I-It's fine, really. I can stand." Orihime tried to reassure us before I had to support her.

"Maybe sitting would be a good option." I suggested. "Let's go inside, I'm sure Chad's here already anyways."

"Why's Chad here?" Orihime asked, seeming to forget that she was dizzy. "Does he have the broken leg?" She started to worry.

"No, no, we just ran into him looking for you, that's all." I calmed her. "There's nothing to worry yourself over."

"All right then." She said as she stood up straight. "Then let's go see your friend." And with that, she marched into the store.

"I really don't know whether to call her trusting or gullible." Nazuno looked after her.

"Well, we need to gain the same mentality if we want to get through this alive, now let's get going." I said as I motioned them in.


	18. Pairing System

**A New Pairing System:**

As we entered the store, Orihime was already going into the back of the store, so the three of us followed after her. I started to head to the ladder that headed to the 'basement', but I noticed that Nazuno had stopped at the second door.

"What is it?" I asked as I came back to him.

"I'm just observing." He said simply. The door was opened slightly, but I pulled it open the rest of the way. Orihime was kneeling next to Jinta and Ururu's beds as a weird orange light was covering both of them. Tessai was also in the room, but he was just standing to one side looking impatient.

Tessai noticed the sliding door, but Orihime seemed focused on what she was doing. If I could remember from my first few hours of being a Soul Reaper, I recalled Ichigo saying that one of the women that he knew had the power to heal any wound and repel nearly any attack. I guess he had been talking about Orihime.

The light suddenly disappeared and Orihime stood up.

"There, that should do it for them Tessai. They should probably still rest for another half hour or so, but I think it will be fine after that." She sighed as she wiped her forehead.

"Thank you very much Orihime. But I think some one else needs your attention right now." Tessai said as he directed her attention to Nazuno and I.

"Oh! I'm so sorry. I just saw Jinta and Ururu lying there and I thought that something was wrong so I went in and Tessai said-"

"Orihime!" I called over her rambling. "It's fine. Let's just go check on Guntei."

"Right! Lead the way sir!" Orihime saluted with comedic seriousness. I could see where Nazuno was coming from. I couldn't tell if she was bonkers or if she actually could do what Ichigo said she could. I just sighed and continued my way down with the two in tow.

We got to the bottom to find Shinrai, Guntei, Yoruichi, and Soi Fon sitting where we had left Guntei. The second Guntei spotted us, he immediately made sure we were known.

"You! Why the hell did you have to leave on a note like that?" Guntei shouted.

"What? I thought it would be a good conversation starter." Nazuno said as we walked closer.

"Conversation starter? You just had enough decency to get me cold shouldered by both of them. I've been sitting here for the last half hour doing nothing!"

"Well, to be completely honest, we were just making sure Urahara didn't do anything while you couldn't move." Yoruichi chuckled. "I'm sorry, eleventh squaders never really do like sitting around."

"I'm sure that's just an excuse." Guntei huffed. "I'm sure that Urahara was busy."

"Really?" Nazuno said, as he seemed to pull out what looked like a leg brace. "What do you think this is?"

"It looks like a leg brace, so what? I already have my leg steady. Where did you get that anyways?"

"I just swiped this from Urahara's counter. And this doesn't seem to just keep your leg straight." And as if on queue, the brace started flexing back and forth a full 180.

"There that is!" Urahara called as he swiped the brace back. "I could have sworn I left this next to the muscle relaxant."

"You did, I just wanted to make a point." Nazuno smiled as Guntei gulped. I just sighed and buried my face in my hands. I then noticed that Orihime was looking around nervously.

"Ah, right." I got everyone's attention. "Orihime is here everyone. Orihime, the guy who just lifted the brace is Nazuno, the guy with the broken leg is Guntei, and the other guy next to him is Shinrai. I think that's about everyone you don't know."

"H-Hello everyone!" Orihime greeted. "It's nice to meet you all."

"As formal as ever." Yoruichi sighed. She got up, and before I knew it was giving Orihime a hug. "You really need to stop doing that."

"Y-Yoruichi!" Soi Fon and Orihime said at the same time, both with red on their faces. I didn't want to ask, and I probably didn't want to know. All I knew was that we all had a timeline to keep.

"Yoruichi, if you wouldn't mind, I would like it if Orihime could get to work on Guntei's leg."

"Yeah, yeah, sure thing." Yoruichi said as she let go of Orihime. "It's just been a while since I saw her, that's all."

"Sure, whatever." I waved. "Now Orihime, if you could?"

"I'm on it!" She saluted, seriously this time. She headed over to Guntei as she raised her hand to one of her hairpins. I saw it glow for a second, and then I saw two small projectiles shot out, cross each other and descend on Guntei's leg in an orange glow.

"So is this what you used upstairs?" I asked as I squatted beside Orihime.

"Yes, it is." She said simply. I took a good look at her and saw just how serious she was to fix Guntei's leg. It was shocking to see her near bipolar attitude changes between silly and serious.

"How long have you had this…power?" I asked. I couldn't come up with any sort of term to describe it. It seemed to work like healing Kido, but it felt so different.

"Mm, it's been about a year or two now." Orihime thought without losing concentration. "I was being attacked by a hollow one day, and here they were, ready to defend me."

"They?"

"Oh sure, they're actually the ones doing the work. I just direct them." Orihime said as she waved to two ends of the light. I looked closer at one and saw what looked like a ladybug.

"Is that a…person?" I asked as I examined the tiny being.

"That's Ayame, and the other one helping her is Shun'o." Orihime happily introduced. "You can talk to them after their done."

"Uh huh." I mumbled as I sat back. "So a hollow attack gave you your powers? Heh, seems to be a common theme around here." I said as I remembered back to how this all started for me.

"But it does beg a question of what exactly this power is." Guntei said. I was both surprised because Guntei said something semi-intellectual, and I had completely forgotten that he was the reason Orihime was here. "I mean, I've been healed many times, and this feels completely from anything I've ever undergone."

"Yeah, I've been told as such." Orihime sighed. "The truth is, is that no one I know can pinpoint exactly what I do. Urahara is the best man I know who could, and he's still baffled."

"That reminds me," I said as I looked around "Where's Chad? He said he would be here."

"We did come here directly." Shinrai pointed out. "Chad might just be taking the normal way here."

"Well, for saying he would be here first, I'm slightly disappointed." Nazuno sighed. "I heard him you know."

"You did? How far can you actually hear?" I asked.

"Dunno, very far. Everything I've ever needed to know has been within my perception." Nazuno shrugged.

"Then why not just check where this Chad guy is?" Guntei prompted. "You found him once already, you shouldn't have a hard time finding him again."

Nazuno was about to retort, but stopped himself. "That is an idea."

"What, you didn't think of it?" Shinrai chuckled. He leaned in next to Guntei. "I didn't think of that either."

"Heard that." Nazuno smirked.

"We all can Shinrai." I added. "We're in a small circle around one guy and everyone has heightened senses, I don't think whisperings going to do much."

"Anyways," Shinrai tried to move the conversation along, "Where's Chad?"

"Hold on a second." Nazuno said as there was a heavy landing from the ladder.

"Never mind." Guntei said as we all directed our attention to the dust cloud. To no one's surprise, Chad walked out of the cloud unscratched and walking toward all of us.

"Isn't that a bit excessive Chad?" Urahara asked, as he got close enough.

"It's the fastest way down." Chad said as he looked around the group. His 'gaze' (if I can call it that) seemed to linger on Nazuno, before finally coming to Orihime. "Hey Orihime."

"Hi Chad, I'll talk in a bit, this break is taking longer than I expected." Orihime said briefly.

"What's wrong?" Chad asked as a general question. Everyone simultaneously looked toward Urahara.

"What? You think I have all the answers?" He asked in an obvious false hurt of accusation.

"When don't you?" Yoruichi asked with a sly smile.

"Touché. Well, I would _hate_ to fall short of _everyone's_ expectations." He laughed as he pulled a fan from out of nowhere to hide his smug grin behind.

"Will you just get him in the loop here? I'm getting tired of this self righteous act of yours." Guntei growled. Though propping himself up to do so didn't help his situation.

"Fine, fine." Urahara closed the fan and tried to settle Guntei down. "Here's how it's going. The Denizens of Hell have overthrown the Guardians and are now planning a strike on the Soul Society and the Human World. These four are meant to be an advance strike squad. Any questions?"

And for once, no one had any for the man who loved them so much. Then, of all of us, Orihime had a question.

"Could you tell me why it's taking me so long to heal his leg?"

"You mean it isn't healing?" I asked. "I thought you could practically reverse death, what's wrong with mending a leg?"

"I don't know." Orihime huffed. "It just seems like the more I try, the more it refuses to be fixed."

"Well, I guess that could have been a possibility." Urahara sighed. "The weapon that broke his leg was meant to be kept broken. It'll get better when Guntei wants it to."

"Hold on, I have a brilliantly stupid idea." Shinrai said. Shinrai proceeded to smack Guntei outside the back of his head. "Get better already."

"Ow! What do you think I've been doing?" Guntei complained as he turned to face Shinrai.

"I'd say you've just been sitting there looking at all the pretty ladies while they flock around you." Shinrai teased.

"Don't you think I want to get better to kick some sense into that Denizen girl? The second I can get my hands on her, I'll-"

"Oh!" Orihime exclaimed. Everyone turned their attention back to Guntei's leg. He seemed completely fine now, nothing looked out of place and the bandages seemed a lot loosed than they did before. Orihime let her ability go and the two pinpoints of light dashed right back to her hairpin. Guntei stood up hesitantly at first, but then jumped straight up.

"Well, I'd say he's better." I said as I looked up at Guntei as he was descending down.

"And why in the world did you think that could possibly work?" Nazuno asked Shinrai. It was a very legitimate question

"Well, I thought if the Guardians were meant to break you, what would happen if you weren't? Guntei had given to the fact that his leg was broken and he could do nothing to fix it. But I thought that when he started to think of doing things on that leg, Orihime's power would work." Shinrai explained.

"And you really thought that would work?" I asked.

"I said it was a brilliantly stupid idea." He chuckled as he scratched his head.

"Well that stupid idea of yours helped me fix my leg." Guntei laughed as he landed. "Any ideas on how I can achieve Bankai now?"

"That's completely on you." Shinrai said as he backed up.

"But this might also explain why the Denizens were able to fight back." Nazuno said in consideration.

"How so?" I asked.

"Well, think about it. If Guntei simply _wanting_ to have his leg fixed allowed him to do so, what says that a Denizen _wanting_ to be free can't do the same thing?" Nazuno reasoned.

"But you have to remember that Orihime was helping him do so." Yoruichi pointed out. "If a Denizens want to be free did so, don't you think they would have done so a long time ago?"

"But didn't we say that the most rebellious ones are the Hollows that just showed up?" I asked. "What if one of them has the power to enact on its targets wants or fears?"

"A possible theory." Urahara said. "But leave the planning to us for now. Right now, the four of you Soul Reapers need to learn how to fight as a team."

"Right." I nodded, but then stopped. "But who could be our opponent to train us to be a group?"

"And that's the easy question." Soi Fon gave a slight grin. "I might have one arm, but I think Yoruichi and I are more than suitable to be your opponents."

"No Soi Fon." Yoruichi said decisively. "We need to strategize with Urahara on a plan of attack. But there are five others to help with this task."

"Who would that be?" Shinrai asked. "There are only nine of us here. Nazuno, Sanju, Guntei and I have to be a group. You, Captain Soi Fon, and Urahara are strategizing. So that only leaves…" Shinrai trailed off as the revelation came upon him. "You can't be serious." He said as he faced Orihime and Chad.

"They're just humans." Guntei said.

"And did you see this 'just human' fall at least a good five stories without a scratch?" Nazuno asked with a cocked eyebrow. "I'd say he's tough."

"All right, I'll give the guy a pass, but what about Orihime? She looks like I could snap her in half with a hug, let alone Hanmaa." Guntei complained.

"And did you see the 'girl' that was swinging the chains that broke your leg?" I counterpointed. "Looks aren't everything."

"But, but…" Guntei was running out of complaints. He finally sighed in defeat.

"I guess that settles it I guess." Shinrai groaned. "But how can we go all out against these two? We might possibly kill them."

To that statement, Shinrai found himself flying across the room. I looked to see what had hit him. Chad had his right fist extended, but it was covered in some sort of red and black coating. It was also smoking.

"I'm sold." Guntei said as he threw his arms into the air.

"Same here." I heard Shinrai call from across the room weakly.

"Great, you can all start over where Shinrai is." Urahara clapped his hands. "I'm sure he's not up to moving right now, and I don't want you breaking my things."

"Whatever." Nazuno said as he and Guntei jumped off to Shinrai's approximate location.

"Are you two okay getting over there?" I asked as I saw Chad's coating seemingly disappear into his fist.

"I'm fine." Chad said as he also jumped, following behind Nazuno and Guntei.

"And are you sure you two are humans?" I asked Orihime as I watched Guntei react to Chad catching up. Nazuno seemed to not take a notice, but he had to have some reaction to Chad passing them.

"Well, we aren't normal anymore, I know that." Orihime said as she started walking. "But I can't do what you guys are doing."

"Then how about I keep you company while they find Shinrai?" I said as I walked beside Orihime.

"That sounds nice." She smiled. We went on our way, following the raising voices of of the three Soul Reapers.


	19. Fight

**A New Fight:**

"All right, I get it, you were offended from my comment. I'm sorry. But was that hit really necessary?" I heard Shinrai say as Orihime and I drew closer.

"I was making a point." Chad responded.

"With punching?"

"I've found it gets a lot of things done faster."

"It's true." I heard Guntei say. "Captain Zaraki says that if it's not beaten in, you'll never learn."

"That's what he say about everything." Shinrai sighed. As the four came into view, I saw that they were all standing in a loose circle. Most noticeably that Shinrai was keeping a weary eye on Chad.

"And here come the late comers." Nazuno pointed us out.

"About time." Guntei called. "We're in a giant, deserted area, how long does it take to find us?"

"Not long at all with how loud Shinrai can complain." I shot back.

"I still call a cheap shot." Shinrai huffed.

"Hey, you were the one who said we could kill them. I would take that as a threat and act." Nazuno said. "Besides, it sold Guntei on their power."

"Hey, I'm sold on Chad, not so much on Orihime." Guntei said as he pointed his thumb back us. I think Orihime was taking a page from Chad, because as Guntei said that, Orihime raised her hands to her hairpins. Three points of light shot out of them and formed a triangle of orange light that slammed Guntei to the ground.

"Huh, I never figured you could use a shield like that." Nazuno observed as he looked down at Guntei.

"All right, point taken." Guntei was able to say with his face planted against the ground. The three points of the triangle dispersed and went back to Orihime's hairpins.

"That wasn't very nice, slamming Guntei down like that when he wasn't even ready." I said.

"Well, he said it himself. If it's not beaten into him, he'll never learn." Orihime smiled.

"How much of a genius are you?"

"Hm?"

"Nothing." I sighed. "Anyways, everybody. How are we going to set this up?"

"4-on-2?" Chad said.

"Really? We're just going to line up in front of each other and start wailing?" Shinrai said skeptically. "What about planning? What about knowing what our team is going to do? What about combination tactics? What about-"

"And I'm just going to cut you off there." I stepped in. "Those are all well and good, for an organized team, knowing what their doing, knowing what their taking on. But we know nothing. We don't know our opponents, we _defiantly_ don't know what we're doing, and we only have gut feelings to work on in the heat of battle."

"And when did you become the military expert?" Shinrai asked.

"I didn't. I just know that these two can work together, and we can just assume that other Denizens can as well."

"And what about us?" Nazuno asked. "What do we know of ourselves?"

"Do you honestly want to know what I think of us? Sure, let's go with that. Guntei is an impulsive, hot headed, stubborn, and combat happy."

"Hey!" Guntei exclaimed. "I'm not stubborn."

"Shinrai is a stickler for rules and regulations, going as far to doubt anything not within his rule book."

"I include the extended, flexible guide."

"And you are a man who seems like he has all the answers." I finished.

"And can you prove otherwise?"

"No! Because out of all of us here, I'm the least experienced, probably the least powerful, and I have to get all of your hides back in one piece, or Captain Soi Fon will have mine." I vented.

"Done yet?" Chad asked.

"And what if I'm not?" I snapped.

"Sanju, when was the last time you rested?" Orihime asked.

"I don't know, some time before I went to the Soul Society. Why, does it matter?" I looked at the girl.

"Then I think you should lie down for a bit." Orihime said, a bit concerned.

"Why? It hasn't been that long since I last rested." I waved off.

"Maybe not," Nazuno said, looking a bit concerned himself. "But since you've been in the Soul Society, You've passed out from severe exertion, fought all three of us, experimented on by Captain Mayuri, and fought the Denizen. And after your little tirade, I'm not against a nap."

"Second." Guntei said. "Hate to put off a good fight, but a half hearted battle is just as bad as a losing battle."

"Shinrai, you too?" I asked the remaining party member.

"I agree with Nazuno on this one." Shinrai shrugged. "While you rest, we can strategize."

"You? Strategizing with Nazuno? I must be dreaming already." I smiled. "Fine, you guy's win. I'll take a _brief_ nap. And then we get into that 4-on-2."

…

"Hey. Hey. HEY!" I felt a foot kick me. For a second I thought I was back in the Head Captain's hall, but when I looked up, I saw Guntei standing over me. "Honestly, brief? How tired were you really?"

"How long have I been asleep?" I groaned as I sat up.

"Five hours." I heard Shinrai say. I looked around and saw that Chad, Shinrai, and Nazuno were sitting as a group a bit away from us. I also found that Orihime was knelling right beside me. "You must have been dead exhausted to pass out on a bed of rocks so fast. Orihime was even worried enough to heal you."

"What good does healing do on fatigue?"

"That's what I asked." Guntei asked.

"And as she explained multiple times, she reverses damage, thus reverting him from ever having his fatigue. Him sleeping just helped afterwards." Nazuno explained.

"Then why wake me now?"

"Because five hours is long enough." Guntei said. "And I'm getting bored of all of this strategizing."

"Fine, fine, just let stretch a bit." I yawned as I staggered up.

"Are you sure you're fine?" Orihime asked as she stood to help me. I just held her off.

"I'm fine, really."

"Like I haven't heard that one before." Orihime huffed.

"Really, rocks aren't really all that great a place to sleep. A bit of stretching and I'll be ready to go."

"Fine, the rest of us are already revving to go." Guntei said as he walked back to the other three.

"Okay then. So in the five hours I've been out, I'm supposing you've all come up with something better than 'line up and fight' as a training regiment, right?"

"Nope." Nazuno responded.

"Great." I sighed. I started stretching out my arms. "Any special rules to the brawl?"

"Nope." Guntei smiled.

"Well then I have one."

"Aw, come on Sanju, all out is for the best." Guntei complained.

"And the worst. Honestly, do we all know each others powers?"

"Yes."

"Entirely."

Guntei was about to answer, but Shinrai cut in. "He has a point Guntei. If we just went all out immediately, we would probably just hurt ourselves. Sure, we know each other, but it's pretty obvious Sanju is still figuring out what he can do, and Nazuno can outperform all of us combined without breaking a sweat."

"Well, when you put it _that_ way." Guntei huffed. "So what's the special rules oh great leader." Guntei asked sarcastically.

"Well, still go all out, just not releasing your Zanpakto." I said simply as I got to stretching out my legs.

"But that's not fair! Nazuno can release his Zanpakto on a whim, how do you know _he'll_ keep to that rule? And besides, we're not fighting Soul Reapers, but humans! I doubt they can put a cap on what they can do."

"That's easily arranged." Chad said, gaining our attention. "I wont use my left hand's power and Orihime can keep stationary except for her own actual attack."

"And what's so special about not using your left arm?" Guntei asked. In response, a white liquid spurt from Chad's left fist and covered his entire arm. When it was done, his arm was completely white with a red line going up its center, diverging and circling around a horn.

"Do you want to see what's special? I'm sure you would make a great demonstration partner."

"Chad!" Orihime shouted, absolutely horrified. "You wouldn't-"

"Of course not." Chad cut her off as the coating reverted back to a liquid and disappeared. "But it got Guntei to be quiet."

He was right; I looked at Guntei to see he was sitting with a pale face. "Okay, I said it before, and I'll say it again. I'm sold. But what about Nazuno?" Guntei asked again. "How are we sure he won't use his Zanpakto?"

"You do realize you're sitting next to me, right?" Nazuno said calmly, making Guntei jump even more. "And I think that may the point. This is a teamwork exercise. If you don't have faith in me, we'll never get through this alive."

"We're not alive in the first place." Guntei huffed.

"_Anyways_." Shinrai stepped in. "If you're all set Sanju, I think we should get round one done with already."

"All righty." I sighed as I stood up and drew my sword. "Shall we?"

In unspoken unison, Guntei, Shinrai, and Nazuno all drew their own swords and lined up next to me. Guntei was to my right, Nazuno to my immediate left, and Shinrai beyond him.

Orihime and Chad took the exact same time to stand side-by-side a good distance away. They both looked ready, but neither of them took any sort of preparation.

And there we stood for what felt like the longest time. I could hear the subtle shift of everyone's swords, and even the dirt being scuffed by everyone's slight movements. Before I even realized it, Shinrai and Guntei started running forward at the two, sword point to the ground, both angled in toward the opponent. I glanced to Nazuno to see his reaction, but he didn't seem fazed by the action in the slightest.

The sound of metal hitting gained my attention back to the fight. Orihime's triangular barrier was raised in front the pair with both swords smashed against it. In between the two Soul Reapers, I could glimpse the black liquid starting to coat Chad's right arm.

"Get back you two!" I called as I rushed forward. I didn't know what I planned to do, but I couldn't stand back while I let my men get blasted. This might be practice, but this was still going to be painful.

As I arrived, Guntei and Shinrai were disengaging with the shield just as it was lowering and Chad had his fist drawn back. I dashed between the two of them and went for a strike at Chad's fist before he had time to throw his punch.

It worked about as well as I expected it to. Chad had already started to punch, so my own Zanpakto collided with his fist. I was about to try to force Chad back when I saw an orange glow pop up behind him. I glanced to see that Nazuno had tried for a sneak attack from behind, but with little luck, striking against the shield.

And for my own distraction, I felt a fist connect with my right cheek. The force sent me flying into the nearest large rock. I quickly stood to see what was happening, but everyone was in a standstill. Chad was still in the position of striking me.

"Hey!" Guntei called. "I thought you said you weren't going to use your left hand! Cheat!"

"Correction, left hand's _power_." Chad said as a blue flare went up. It surprised me, but I soon realized that the light was actually coming out of a diamond design raised above his left shoulder. I could also see that it was accumulating around his fist.

"Guntei, Shinrai! Move out of the way!" I shouted as I jumped to get above Chad for an aerial assault. From above, I saw Nazuno being swarmed by what seemed to be a single orange light, and Guntei and Shinrai jumped to either side of Chad. I readied my sword to strike after Chad unleashed whatever he was planning and began to descend from above.

Chad seemed to try to decide between Guntei and Shinrai to hit, and I drew my Zanpakto out further for a wider swing.

Then Chad looked up and threw an uppercut.

I had a split second to realize Chad had planned this, and the other half of that second was trying to draw my blade in to deflect the blast.

I barely made it in time, but the blast still knocked me back, hard. I went straight up and crashed into the ceiling of the room. I had doubted for a long time that there had actually been a roof to the room, but I hit it hard enough to embed me in it.

I groaned from the pain in back from the crash, and the pain in my arms trying to hold out against the blast. As I looked down, I realized how exactly how far up I was. I could see Soi Fon, Yoruichi, and Urahara standing in a circle, obviously arguing (thanks to Soi Fon's violent reactions) and that my team was fairing none the better without me.

Guntei and Shinrai seemed to be keeping Chad on his toes by one constantly being behind the other, while Nazuno seemed to be trying to handle Orihime by himself. I had to chuckle at how much trouble he seemed to be having with that dancing light around his head. I then noticed how separate they all actually looked.

Nazuno was completely on his own, while Shinrai and Guntei seemed to only react to the other's action. If only Orihime hadn't been there, we probably would have had Chad down already. Then something dawned on me, we were all to distracted fighting with our own power, rather than pooling all of our resources. We all focused on Chad because he looked the strongest, but Orihime was holding Nazuno off quite well by herself.

But what were we missing? I knew this was going to be disorganized from the beginning, so I tried to lessen it by making it a basic fight, but even now we were getting our butts handed to us. What could we do? It had gone well enough, until…

Orihime intervened. Chad didn't even bother to check why Orihime had done what she did, he just trusted what she had done had been done for a reason. I could chalk it to simple inexperience and wanting to know what was happening all around me, constantly being distracted, but what about the others? Nazuno had said it before; we had to trust him not to use his Zanpakto, but what about just simply trusting one another's actions entirely?

In the rather short span of time I was thinking this, I didn't notice my ever-lessening grip on my Zanpakto. It wasn't until I fully let go of its weight that I realized I dropped it. That was a good a sign as any that I had been lying around for too long. I placed my hands beside either side of me and began to push myself out of the small dent I had been embedded in. As I got out, gravity took a hold and started pulling me back into the fray.


End file.
